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BOSTON": B B.RUSSELL. 



THE HISTORY 



OF 



THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA: 



CONTAINING 



AN ACCOUNT OE ALL THE MOST INTERESTING EVENTS 
IN THAT VAST MONARCHY, 



FROM 



ITS EARLIEST ORIGIN IN THE REMOTE AGES OF BARBARISM TO 

THE PRESENT DAY; WHEN, IN POPULATION AND POWER, 

IT EXCITES THE DREAD, AND ALMOST CONTROLS 

THE DIPLOMACY, OP EUROPE. 



BY 



JOHN S. C. ABBOTT, 



AUTHOR OF "lives OF THE PRESIDENTS, " LIFE OF NAPOLEON III," "PRUSSIA AND 
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR," " HISTORY OF ITALY," ETC. 



<p:( ^^.Cn 



/r. f^-./£M 



^ BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 55 CORNHILL. 

PHILADELPHIA : QUAKER-CITY PUBLISHING-HOUSE. DETROIT : R. 

D. S. TYLER. PORT HOPE, ONT.: P. R. RANDALL & CO. 

SAN FRANCISCO: A. L. BANCROFT & CO. 

1872. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 

By B. B. RUSSELL, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



)< I ^ Boston: 

K » Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, &= Co. 



TO 

THE YOUNG OF AMERICA 

^tis Folume 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

WITH THE HOPE THAT THE ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE INCIDENTS INVOLVED 

IN THE BIRTH, PROGRESS, AND MATURITY OF A GIGANTIC EMPIRE, MAY 

INCREASE THEIR INTEREST IN THE SUBLIME REALITIES OF 

TRUE HISTORY, WHOSE WONDERS SO OFTEN SURPASS 

ANY OF THE CREATIONS OF FICTION. 

JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 



PEEF A OE. 



The world is now too busy to read voluminous history. 
The interminable details of battles, and the petty intrigues 
of courtiers and mistresses, have lost their interest. In 
this volume it has been our object to trace perspicuously 
the path which Kussia has trod from earliest infancy to 
the present hour. The career of this empire has been so 
wild and wonderful that the historian can have no occa- 
sion to call in the aid of fancy for the embellishment of 
his narrative. 

The author has not deemed it necessary to incumber 
his pages with notes to substantiate his statements. The 
renowned Russian historian, Karamsin, who wrote under 
the patronage of Alexander I., gives amjole authentication 
to all the facts which are stated up to the reign of that 
emperor. His voluminous history, in classic beauty, is 
unsurpassed by any of the annals of Greece or Rome. It 
has been admirably translated into French by Messrs. St. 
Thomas and Jauffi-et in eleven imperial quarto volumes. 
In the critical citations of this author, the reader, curious 
in such researches, will find every fact in the early history 
of Russia, here stated, confirmed. 

There are but few valuable works upon Russia in the 
EngHsh language. Nearly all, which can be relied upon 
as authorities, are written either in French or German. 
The writer would refer those who seek a more minute 
acquaintance with this empire, now rising so rapidly in 
importance, first of all to Karamsin. The " Histoire 
Philosophique et Politique de Russie Depuis les Temps 
les Plus Recules Jusqu'au Nos Jours, par J. Esneaux," 



VI PREFACE. 

Paris, ^ve volumes, is a valuable work. The " Histoire 
de Kussie par Pieri'e Charles Levesque," eight volumes, is 
discriminating and reliable. The various volumes of Wil- 
liam Tooke upon Eussian history in general, and upon the 
reign of Catharine, contain much information. 

It is only since the reign of Peter the Great that 
Kussia has begun to attract much attention among the 
enlightened nations of Europe. Voltaire's life of this most 
renowned of the Eussian sovereigns, at its first publica- 
tion, attracted much notice. Since then, many books 
have been written upon fragments of Eussian history and 
individual reigns. From most of these the author has 
selected such events as have appeared to him most in- 
structive and best adapted to give the reader a clear 
conception of the present condition and future prospects 
of this gigantic empire. The path she has trod, since her 
first emergence into civilization from the chaos of barbar- 
ism, can be very distinctly traced, and one can easily 
count the concentric accretions of her growth. This nar- 
rative reveals the mistakes which have overwhelmed her 
with woe, and the wisdom which has, at times, secured 
for Kussia peace and prosperity. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE AND BIETH OF EUSSIA. 

Feom 500 B. C. TO A. D. 910. 

PAGB 

Primeval Russia. — Explorations of the Greeks. — Sotthian Invasion. — Char- 
acter OF the Scythians. — ^SAEiiATiA. — Assaults upon the Eoman Empire. — 
Irruption of the Alains. — Conquests of Trajan. — The Gothic Invasion. — 
The Huns. — Their Character and Aspect. — The Devastations of Attila. — 
The Avars. — Results of Comminglings of these Tribes. — Normans. — Birth 
op the Russian Empire — The Three Sovereigns Ruric, Sineous and Truvor. 
—Adventures of Ascolod and Dir. — Introduction of Christianity. — Usur- 
pation OF Oleg. — His Conquests. — Expedition against Constantinople 17 

CHAPTER II. 

GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OF RUSSIA. 

From 910 to 973. 

Expedition to Constantinople. — Treaty with the EypEROR. — Last Days op 
Oleg. — His Death. — Igor assumes the Scepter. — His Expedition to the Don. 
— ^Descent upon Constantinople. — His Defeat.— Second Expedition. — Pusil- 
lanimity OF the Greeks. — Death of Igor. — Regency of Olga. — Her Charac- 
ter, — Succession of Sviatoslaf. — His Impiety and Ambition. — Conquest of 
Bulgaria. — Division of the Empire. — Defeat, Ruin and Death of Sviatos- 
laf. — Civil War. — Dsath op Oleg. — Flight op Yladimie. — Sxtpremacy of 
Yaropolk 8i 

CHAPTER III. 

REIGNS OF YLADIMIR, TAROSLAF, YSIASLAF AND YSEVOLOD. 

From 973 to 1092. 

Flight op Vladimir. — His Stolen Bride. — The March upon Kief. — Debauch- 
ery OF Vladimir. — Zealous Paganism. — Introduction of Christianity. — Bap- 
tism in the Dnieper. — Entire Change in the Character of Vladimir. — His 
Great Reforms. — His Death. — Usurpation of Sviatopolk the Miserable. — 
Accession of Yaroslaf. — His Administration and Death, — Accession of 
YsiASLAF. — His Strange Reverses, — His Death. — Vsevolod Ascends the 
Throne. — His Two Flights to Poland. — Appeals to the Pope. — Wars, Fam- 
ine AND Pestilence, — Character of Vsevolod S" 



VUl - CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

YEAES OP WAE AND WOE. 

Fbom 1092 TO 1167. 

PAGS 

CnARACTEE OF YSEVOLOD. — StTCCERSION OF SviATOPOLK. — HiS DiSOOMFITUEE. — DE- 
PLORABLE Condition of Russia. — Death of Sviatopolk. — His Chakactee. — 
Accession of Monomaque. — Curious Festival at Kief. — Energy of Mono- 
MAQUE. — Alarm of the Emperoe at Constantinople.— Horrors of War. — 
Death of Monomaque. — His Eemarkable Character. — Pious Letter to his 
Children. — Accession of Mstislaf. — His Short but Stormy Eeign. — Strug- 
gles FOR THE Throne. — Final Victory of Ysiaslaf. — Moscow in the Prov- 
ince of Souzdal. — Death of Ysiaslaf. — Wonderful Career of Eostislaf. — 
EisiNQ PowEK of Moscow. — Georgievitch, Prince of Moscow 68 



CHAP T EH V. 

MSTISLAF AND ANDEE. 

From 1167 to 1212. 

Centralization of Power at Kief. — ^Death of Eostislaf. — His Eeligious Chak- 
actee. — Mstislaf Ysiaslavitch Ascends the Throne. — Proclamation of the 
King. — Its Effect. — Plans of Andre. — Scenes at Kief. — Eeturn and Death 
of Mstislaf. — War in Novgorod. — Peace Concluded Throughout Eussia. 
— Insult op Andre and its Consequences. — Greatness of Soul Displayed ey 
Andre, — Assassination of Andre. — Eenewal of Anarchy. — Emigration from 
Novgorod. — Eeign of Michel. — Ysevolod III. — Evangelization of Bulgaria. 
— ^Death of Ysevolod III. — His Queen Maria 85 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE GEAND PEINCES OF YLADIMIE, AND THE INVASION OP 

GHENGHIS KAHN. 

From 1212 to 1238. 

Accession of Georges. — Famine. — Battle of Lipetsk. — Defeat of Georges 

His Surrender. — Constantin Seizes the Scepter. — Exploits of Mstislaf. — 
Imbecility of Constantin. — Death of Constantin. — Georges III. — Invasion 
of Bulgaria. — Progress of the Monarchy. — Eight of Succession. — Commerce 
of the Dnieper. — Ghenghis Khan. — His Eise and Conquests. — Invasion of 
Southern Eussia. — Death of Ghenghis Khan. — Succession of his Son Ougadal 
— March of Batl — Entrance into Eussia. — Utter Defeat of the Eussians. 04 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE SWAY OF THE TAETAE PEINCES. 

Feom 1233 to 1304. 

Eetreat op Georges II. — Desolating March op the Tartars. — Captxtee of Yla- 
DEMiR. — Fall op Moscow. — Utter Defeat op Georges. — Conflict of Torjek. 
— March of the Taetae^ toward the South.— Subjugation of the Polov- 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGB 

TSi. — Captttre of Kief. — Httmtltation of Yaboslaf. — Overtheow op the 
Efssian Kingdom. — IIadgutiness of the Tartars.— Keign of Alexander. — 
Succession of Taroslaf. — The Eeign of Yassult. — State of Christianity. — 
Infamy of Andre. — Struggles with Dmitrl — Independence of the Pbinci- 
falities. — Death of Andre 12] 



CHAPTEE'YIII. 

EESUEEEOTION OP THE EtJSSIAN MONAEOHY. 

From 1304 to 1380. 

Defeat op Georges and the Tartars. — Indignation of the Khan. — Michel 
Summoned to the Horde. — His Trial and Execution. — Assassination op 
Georges. — Execution op Dmitri. — Eepulse and Death op the Embassadob 
OF the Khan. — Yengeance of the Khan. — Increasing Prosperity of Eussia. 
— The Great Plague. — Supremacy of Simon. — Anarchy in the Horde. — 
Plague and Conflagration.— The Tartars Eepulsed. — Eeconquest of Bul- 
garia. — The Great Battle op Koulikof. — Utter Eout of the Tartars 134 



CHAPTER IX. 
dmitei, yassali, and the MOGOL TAMEELANE 

From 1380 to 1462. 

Recovery op Dmitrl — ^Ne-w Tartar Invasion. — ^Thk Assattlt and Capture op 
Moscow. — New Subjugation of the Eussians.— Lithuania Embraces Chris- 
tianity. — Escape of Yassali from the Horde. — Death of Dmitrl — Tamer- 
lane — His Origin and Career. — His Invasion of India. — Defeat of Bajazet. 
— Tamerlane Invades Eussia. — Preparations for Eesistance. — Sudden Ee- 
teeat of the Tartars. — Death of Yassali. — Accession of Yassali Yassilie- 
vitch. — The Disputed Succession, — Appeal to the Khan. — Eebellion op 
TouBi. — Cruelty op Yassall — ^Thb Eetribution 153 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ILLUSTEIOUS IYAN III. 

From 1462 to 14S0. 

Ivan III.— His Precocity and Eising Power.— T'iie Three Great Hordes. — 
Eussian Expedition against Kezan. — Defeat of the Tartars. — Capture op 
Constantinople by the Turks. — The Princess Sophia. — Her Journey to 
Eussia, and Marriage with Ivan III. — Increasing 'Eenown op Eussia.— 
New Difficulty with the Horde. — The Tartars Invade Eussia. — Strife on 
tbte Ban'ks of the Oka. — Letter of the Metropolitan Bishop. — Unprece- 
dented Panic. — Liberation of Eussia 163 

1* . 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE REIGN OF VASSILl. 

Feom 14S0 TO 1533. 

FA.Ga 

A.LLIANCE TTITH HUNGART. — A. TeAVELEK FROM GERMANY. — TREATY BETWEEN ECS- 

siA AND Germany. — Embassage to Turkey. — Court Etiquette. — Death op 
THE Princess Sophia. — Death of Ivan. — Advancement of Knowledge. — Suc- 
cession OF Vassili. — Attack Upon the Horde. — Eout of the Russians. — The 
Grand Prince Takes the Title of Empeuor. — Turkish Envoy to Moscow. — 
Efforts to Arm Europe Against the Turks. — Death op the Emperor Max- 
imilian, AND Accession of Charles V. to the Empire of Germany. — Death 
OF Vassili 188 



CHAPTER XII. 

IVAN IV. — HIS MINORITY. 

From 1533 to 1546. 

Vassilt at the Chase. — Attention to Distinguished Foreigners. — The Autoo- 
eacy. — Splendor op the Edifices. — Slavery. — Aristocracy. — Infancy of 
Ivan IV. — Regency of Helens. — Conspiracies and Tumults. — "War with Sig- 
iSMOND of Poland. — Death of Helene. — ^Struggles of the Nobles. — Appall- 
ing Sufferings of Dmitri. — Incursion of the Tartars. — Successful Conspie- 
ACY. — Ivan IV. at the Chase. — Coronation of Ivan IV ... 199 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 

Feom 1546 to 1552. 

The Title of Tzar. — Marriage of Ivan IV. — Virtues of His Bride. — Depraved 
Character of the Young Emperor. — Terrible Conflagrations. — Insurrec- 
tions. — The Rebuke. — Wonderful Change in the Character of Ivan IV. 
— Confessions of Sin and Measures of Reform. — Sylvestre and Alexis 
Adachef. — The Code op Laws. — Reforms in the Church. — Encouragement 
TO Men of Science and Letters. — The E.mbassage of Schlit, — War with 
Kezan. — Disasters and Disgrace. — Immense Preparation for the Chastise- 
ment OF THE Horde. — The March. — Repulse of the Tauredians.— Siege of 
Kezan. — Incidents of the Siege 21C 



CHAPTER XIY. 

THE REIGN OF IVAN I V .— C N T I N U E D. 

From 1552 to 1557. 

Biege of Kez.^n. — Artifices of War. — The Explosion of Mines. — The Final 
Assault. — Complete Subjugation of Kezan. — Gratitude and Liberality of 
the Tzar. — Return to Moscow. — Joy of the Inhabitants. — Birth of an Heie 
TO the Ceown. — Insueeection in Kezan. — The Insurrection Quelled. — Con- 



CONTENTS. Xi 

PA.GK 
QFEST OF ASTBITCHAN. — ThE ENGLISH EXPBDITIOK IN SEARCH OP A NoETH-EaST 

Passage to India. — The Establishment at Akchangel. — Commercial Eela- 
TiONs Between France and Eussia. — Eussian Embassy to England, — Exten- 
sion of Commerce 233 



CHAPTEE XV. 

THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 

From 1557 to 1582. 

Terror op the Horde in Tatteide. — "War -with Gxtstavus Vasa op Sweden.— 
Political Punctilios. — The Kingdom op Livonia Annexed to Sweden. — 
Death of Anastasia. — Conspiracy Against Ivan. — His Abdication. — His Ee- 

SUMPTION OP THE CrOWN. — INVASION OF EUSSIA BY THE TARTARS AND TURKS, 

— Heroism of Zebrinow. — Utter Discomfiture op the Tartars. — Eelations 
Between Queen Elizabeth of England, and Eussia. — Intrepid Embassage, 
— New War with Poland. — Disasters op Eussia. — The Emperor Kills His 
Own Son. — Anguish op Ivan IV 251 



CHAPTER XYI. 

THE STOEMS of HEEEDITAET SUCCESSION. 

From 1582 to 1608. 

Anguish and Death op Ivan IV. — His Character. — ^Feodor and Dmitri. — Usttb- 
PATiON OP Boris Gudenow. — The Polish Election. — Conquest op Siberia. — 
Assassination of Dmitri. — Death op Feodor. — Boris Crowned King. — Con- 
spiracies. — Eeappeaeance op Dmitri.— Boris Poisoned. — The Pretender 
Crowned. — Embarrassments of Dmitri. — A New Pretender. — Assassination 
op Dmitri.— Crowning op Zuski. — Indignation op Poland. — Historical Eo- 

MANCE ^ 268 



CHAPTER XYII. 

A CHANGE OP DYNASTY. 

From 1608 to 1680. 

Conquests by Poland. — Sweden in Alliance with Eussia, — Grandeur op 
Poland. — Ladislaus Elected King of Eussia. — Commotions and Insurrec- 
tions. — Rejection of Ladislaus and Election of Michael Feodor Eomanow, 
— Sorrow of His Mother. — Pacific Character of Eomanow. — Choice op a 
Bride. — Eudochia Streschnew. — The AKcnBisiioP Feodor. — Death of Michael 
AND Accession of Alexis. — Love in the Palace. — Successful Intrigue. — 
Mobs in Moscow. — Change in the Character of the Tzar. — Turkish Inva- 
sions. — Alliance Between Eussia and Poland , 285 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XYIII. 

TUE REGENCY OF SOPHIA. 
From 1680 to 1G97. 

AnMrniSTRATioN OP Fkopor. — ^Death of Feodor. — Inoapaoitt of Ivan.— Suc- 
cession OF PkTER. — USURPATIOX OF SOPIMA. — INSURRECTION OF THE StRRLITZKS. 

— Massaokk in Moscow. — Success of the Insurrection. — Ivan and Peter De-- 

CLAREn SOVKREIONS UNDER THE KeGENCY OF SOPIIIA. — GENERAL DISCONTENT.— 
CoNSriRACY AGAINST SoiMUA. — IIeR FuOllT TO THE CONVENT. — TlIE CONSPIR- 
ACY QuEi.i.Ei>. — New Conspiracy. — Knekoy of Peter.— He AssuMF.STnE Crown, 
— SopuiA Banished to a Convent. — Commencement of tuk Keign of Peter,. 801 



CHAPTER XIX. 

PETER THE GREAT. 

From 1697 to 1702. 

YoiTNO RiTSSiAira Sknt to Foreign Countries. — The Tzar Decidbs Upon a. 
Tour of Ouservation. — lira Plan op Travel. — Anecdote.— Peter's Mode of 
Life in Holland. — Characteristic Anecdotes. — The Present.vtion of thb 
Embassador, — The Tzar Visits England. — Life at Pepteord. — Illustrious 
Foreioneks Engaged in His Service. — Peter Visits Vienna. — The Game of 
Landlord. — Insurrection in .Moscow. — Ueturn of the Tzar, and Measures 
OF Severity. — War with Sweden. — Disastrous Defk.vt op Narva. — Efforts 
TO Sbours tub Suorss of the Baltic. — Designs Upon tub Blaok Sea 816 



CHAPTER XX. 

CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF PETER THE GREAT. 

From 1702 to 171S. 

'Peter takes Lake Lagoda and the Neva. — Found.a.tion of St. PETERSBTjRa.— 
Conquest of Livonia. — Marienburg taken by Storm. — The Empress Cath- 
arine. — Extraordinary Efforts' in Building St. Petersburg. — Threat of 
Charles Xll. — Deposition of Ai'Gustus. — Enthronement of Stanislaus. — 
Battle of Pultowa. — Flight of Charlf.s XII. to Turkey. — Increased Re- 
nown OF Russia. — Dis.vstrous Conflict with the Turks. — Marriage of 
Alexis. — His Character, — Death of his "Wife. — The Empress Acknowledged. 

— CONQUBST OF FINLAND. — ToUR OF THE TzAB TO SOUTHERN EuROPK. 882 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS, AND DEATH OP 

THE TZAR. 

From 171S to 1725. 

Thr Tzar's Second YraiT to Holland. — Reception in France. — Description o» 
Cathakiniw — Domestic Grief.— Conduct of ALKsra. — Letters From His Fa- 
ther. — Flight to Germany. — Thence to Naples, — Envoys Sent to Bring lluf 



coNTEN^fs. xiii 

PAoa 

Baok. — Alkxw Excluded From tub SucoESsroN. — lira Trial fok Trbasoh.— 
Condemnation AND Unexpected Death. — New Ekkorts of the Tzar for tub 
Welfare of Russia. — Sickness of Peter. — IIi.s Death. — Succession or the Em- 

PBB8S CaTUABINB. — EPITAPU TO TUB EmPEUUB 849 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE EEIGN3 OF CA.TIIARINE I., ANNE, THE INFANT lYAN ANP 

ELIZABETH. 

Feom 1725 TO 1762. 

Enbrobtto REifly of CATnARiNE.— TIrr Suddkx DBATn. — Brief Eeion of Peteb 
II. — Difficulties of Hereditary Succession. — A Republic Contemplated.— 
Anne, Daughter of Ivan. — The Infant Ivan Proclaimkd Kino. — Hls Terri- 
ble Doo-M. — Elizahetii, Daughter of Peter the Great, Enthroned. — Charac- 
ter of Elizaheth. — Alliance with Maria Theresa. — Wap^ with Prussia. — 
Great Reversks of Frederic of Prussia. — Desperate Condition op Frederic, 
— Dbatu of Elizabeth.— Succession of Peter III 864 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

PETER III. AND HIS BRIDE. 

Feom 1728 to 1762. 

Linbagb of Peter III.— Chosen rt Elizabeth as Her Successor. — The Brtdb 
Chosen for Peter. — Her Lineage. — The Courtship. — The Marriage. — Auto- 
biography of Catharine. — Anecdotes of Peter. — His Neglect of Catharinh 
AND His Debaucheries. — Amusements of the Russian Court. — Military Ex- 
ecution of a Rat. — Accession of Peter III. to the Throne. — Supremacy of 
Catharine. — Her Repudiation Threatened. — The Conspiracy. — Its Success- 
ful Accomplishment 879 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

niE CONSPIRACY; AND ACCESSION OF CATHARINE II, 

From 1762 to 1765. 

Peter III. at Oranienbaum. — Catharine at Peterhop. — ^The Successful Ac- 
complishment of the Conspiracy. — Terror op Peter. — His Vacillating and 
Feeble Character. — Flight to Cronstadt. — Repui^se. — Heeoio Counsel of 
Munich. — Peter's Return to Oranienbaum. — His Suppliant Letters to Cath- 
arine.— His Arrest. — Imprisonment. — Assassination. — Proclamation of tub 
Emprr.ss. — Her Complicity in the Crime. — Energy of Catharine's Adminis- 
tration. — Her Expansive Views and Sagacious Policy. — Contemplated Mab- 
BiAOB with Count Orlop 894 



XIV CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXY. 

EEIGN OF CATHAEINE II. 
Feom 1765 TO 1T74. 

PAGH 

Eneegy of Catharine's Administeation. — ^Titles of Honoe Deceeed to Hee. 
— Code of Laws Instituted. — ^The Assassination of the Empbess Attempted. 
— Encotteagement of Learned Men. — Catharine Inoculated foe the Small- 
Pox. — New "War with Turkey. — Capture of the Ceimea. — Sailing of the 
EussiAN Fleet.— Great Naval Victory. — Visit of the Prussian Princk 
Henry. — The Sleigh Eide. — Plans for the Paetition of Poland. — The Her- 
mitage. — Marriage of the Grand Duke Paul. — Coeeespondence with Vol- 

TAIEE AND DiDEEOT 409 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

EEIGN of CATHAEINE II. 

Feom 1T74 TO 1781. 

Peace with Turkey.— Couet of Cathaeine II. — Hee Personal AppearakOb 
AND Habits. — Conspiracy and Eebellion. — Df^feat of the Eebels.— Mag- 
nanimity OF Catharine II. — Ambition of the Empress. — Court Favorite.— 
Division of Eussia into Provinces. — Internal Improvements. — New Parti- 
tion OF Poland. — ^Death of the Wife of Paul. — Second Marriage of 
the Grand Doke. — Splendor of the Eussian Court. — Eussia and Austria 
Begretly Combine to Drive the Turks out of Europe. — The Empeeoe 
Joseph II • , • ,. 425 



CHAPTER XXYII. 
teemination of the eeign of cathaeine II. 

From 1781 to 1786. 

Statue of Peter the Great. — Alliance Between Austria and Eubsia. — ^In- 
dependence OF the Crimea — The Kuan of the Crimea. — ^Vast Preparations 
foe "War. — ^National Jealousies. — Tolerant Spirit of Catharine. — Magnif- 
icent ExcuESioN to the Crime a.^Commencement of Hostilities. — Anecdote 
OF Paul. — Peace. — New Partition of Poland. — Treaty with Austria and 
France.— Hostility to Liberty in France. — Death of Catharine. — ^Hbr 
Character 43S 



CHAPTER XXYIII. 

THE EEIGN OF PAUL I. 

Feom 1796 TO 1801. 

Accession of Paul I to the Theone. — Influence of the Heeeditaey Trans- 
mission OF PowEE, — ^Extravagance of Paul. — His Despotism. — The Hoesb 
Court Martialed. — Progress of the French Eevolution. — Feaes and Vio- 
lence of Paul. — Hostility to Foreigners. — Eussia Joins the Coalitiob 



CONTENTS. XV 

FAOK 
AGAINST y«ANCE. — MaECU OP SXT-WAKROTV. — CnARACTEE OP SUWARROW. — BAT- 
TLE ON THE Adda. — Battle op Novi. — Suwaeeow Marches to the Ehine. — 
His Defeat and Death. — Paul Abandons the Coalition and Joins France. 
— Conspiracies at St. Petersburg 454 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

ASSASSINATION OF PAUL AND ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 

From 1801 to 1807. 

Assassination op Paul I. — Implication op Alexander in the Conspiracy. — 
Anecdotes. — Accession of Alexander. — The Frexch Eevolution. — Alexan- 
der Joins the Allies against France. — State of Eussia. — Useful Measures 
of Alexander. — Peace op Amiens. — Eenewal of Hostilities. — Battle op 
AusTERLiTZ. — Magnanimity of Napoleon. — New Coalition. — Ambition op 
Alexander, — Battles of Jena and Eylau. — Defeat of the Eussians 469 



CHAPTER XXX. 

EEIGN of ALEXANDER I. 

From 1807 to 1825. 

The Field of Eylatt. — ^Letter to the King op Prussia. — Renewal op the Wab. 
—Discomfiture of the Allies. — Battle of Friedland. — The Eaft at Tilsit. 
— Intimacy of the Emperors. — Alexander's Designs upon Turkey. — Alli- 
ance Between France and Russia. — Object of the Continental System, — 
Perplexities op Alexander. — Driven by the Nobles to War. — Eesults op 
the Eussian Campasgn. — Napoleon Vanquished. — ^Last Days op Alexander. 
— His Sickness and Death 485 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

NICHOLAS. 

From 1825 to 1855. 

Abdication of Constantine. — Accession of Nicholas. — Insurrection Quelled. 
— Nicholas and the Conspirator. — Anecdote. — The Palace of Peterhof.— 
The "Winter Palace. — Presentation at Court. — Magnitude of Eussia. — Db- 
scrtption of the Hellespont and the Dardanelles. — The Turkish Invasion. 
— Aims of Russia. — Views op England and France. — "Wars op Nicholas. — 
The Polish Insurrection. — "War op the Crime.v. — Jealousies op the Leading 
Nations. — Encroachments • 501 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE CEIMEAN WAR. 

From 1844 to 1856. 

PAGE 

Causes of the CRrsrEAN "War. — Schemes of Nicholas. — Embar- 
rassments OF the Sultan. — Loss of the Turkish Fleet. — Dec- 
laration OF War. — Storming of the Malakoff. — Treaty of 
Peace 515 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

DEATH OF NICHOLAS, AND ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER U. 

Sickness of Nicholas. — Death-bed Scene. — Grief of the Em- 
press. — Alexander II. —His Character. — His Marriage, and 
Domestic Habits.— Emancipation of the Serfs 629 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE AND BIRTH OF RUSSIA. 
From 500 b. c. to a. d. 910. 

Pkimeval Extssia. — Explorations of the Greeks.— Sottiiia-n Intaston.— Charactkb 
OP THE Scythians.— Sarmatia. — Assaults upon the Eoman Empire.— Irruption 
OF THE Alains. — Conquests of Trajan.— The Gothic Invasion.— The Huns. — Their 
Character AND Aspect. — The Devastations of Attila. — The Avars. — Results 
of Comminghngs of these Tribes. — Normans. — Birth of the Russian Empire. — 
The Three Sovereigns Eurik, Sineous and Truvor.— Adventures of Asoolod 
AND DiR. — Introduction of Christianity. — Usurpation op Olbg. — His Con- 
quests. — Expedition against Constantinople. 

THOSE vast realms of northern Europe, now called Rus- 
sia, have been inhabited for a period beyond the records 
of history, by wandering tribes of savages. These barbaric 
hordes have left no monuments of their existence. The an- 
nals of Greece and of Rome simply inform us that they were 
there. Generations came and departed, passing through life's 
tragic drama, and no one has told their story. 

About five hundred years before the birth of our Saviour, 
the Greeks, sailing up the Bosphorus and braving the storms 
of the Black Sea, began to plant their colonies along its 
shores. Instructed by these colonists, Herodotus, who wrote 
about four hundred and forty years before Christ, gives some 
information respecting the then condition of interior Russia. 
The first great irruption into the wastes of Russia, of which 
history gives us any record, was about one hundred years 
before our Saviour. An immense multitude of con(xlomerated 
tribes, taking the general name of Scythians, with their Avives 
and their children, their flocks and their t^erds, and their war- 
riors, fiercer than wolves, crossed the Yojga, and took posses* 



18 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

sion of the whole country between the Don and the Danube. 
These barbarians did not molest the Greek colonies, but, on 
the contrary, were glad to learn of them many of the rudi- 
ments of civilization. Some of these tribes retained their an- 
cestral habits of wandering herdsmen, and, with their flocks, 
traversed the vast and treeless plains, where they found ample 
pasture. Others selecting sunny and fertile valleys, scattered 
their seed and cultivated the soil. Thus the Scythians were 
divided into two quite distinct classes, the herdsmen and the 
laborers. 

The tribes who then peopled the vast wilds of northern 
Europe and Asia, though almost innumerable, and of different 
languages and customs, were all called, by the Greeks, Scy- 
thians, as we have given the general name of Indians to all 
the tribes who formerly ranged the forests of North America. 
The Scythians were as ferocious a race as earth has ever 
known. They drank the blood of their enemies ; tanned their 
skins for garments ; used their skulls for drinking cups ; and 
worshiped a sword as the image or emblem of their favorite 
deity, the God of War. Philip of Macedon was the first who 
put any check upon their proud spirit. He conquered them 
in a decisive battle, and thus taught them that they were not 
invincible. Alexander the Great assailed them and spread 
the terror of his arms throuQjhout all the resiion between the 
Danube and the Dnieper. Subsequently the Roman legions 
advanced to the Euxine, and planted their eagles upon the 
heights of the Caucasus. " 

The Roman historians seem to have dropped the Scythian 
name, and they called the whole northern expanse of Europe 
and Asia, Sarmatia, and the barbarous inhabitants Sarraatians. 
About the time of our Saviour, some of these fierce tribes 
from the banks of the Theiss and the Danube, commenced 
their assaults upon the frontiers of the Roman empire. This 
was the signal for that war of centuries, which terminated in 
the overthrow of the throne of the Csesars. The Roman 



PARENTAGE AND BIBTH OF BUSSIA. 19 

Senate, enervated by luxury, condescended to purchase peace 
of these barbarians, and nations of savages, whose names are 
now forgotten, exacted tribute, under guise of payment for 
alliance, from the proud empire. But neither bribes, nor 
alliances, nor the sword in the hands of enervated Rome, 
could effectually check the incursions of these bands, who 
were ever emerging, like wolves, from the mysterious depths 
of the North. 

In the haze of those distant times and remote realms, we 
catch dim glimpses of locust legions, emerging from the 
plains and the ravines between the Black Sea and the Caspian, 
and sweeping like a storm cloud over nearly all of what is 
now called Russia. These people, to whom the name of 
Alains was given, had no fixed habitations; they conveyed 
their women and children in rude carts. Their devastations 
were alike extended over Europe and Asia, and in the fero- 
city of their assaults they were as insensible to death as wild 
beasts could be. 

In the second century, the emperor Trajan conquered and 
took possession of the province of Dacia, which included all 
of lower Hungary, Traip sylvan ia, Moldavia, Wallachia and 
Bessarabia. The country was divided into Roman provinces, 
over each of which a prefect was established. In the third 
century, the Goths, from the shores of the Baltic, came 
rushinor over the wide arena, with the howlinsf of wolves and 
their gnashing of teeth. They trampled down all opposition, 
with their war knives drove out the Romans, crossed the 
Black Sea in their rude vessels, and spread conflagration and 
death throughout the most flourishing cities and villages of 
Bythinia, Gallacia and Cappadocia. The famous temple of 
Diana at Ephesus, these barbarians committed to the flames. 
They overran all Greece and took Athens by storm. As they 
were about to destroy the precious libraries of Athens, one of 
their chieftains said, 

*' Let us leave to the Greeks their books, that they, in 



20 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

reading them may forget the arts of war ; and that we thus 
may more easily be able to hold them in subjection." 

These Goths established an empire, extending from the 
Black Sea to the Baltic, and which embraced nearly all of 
what is now European Russia. Towards the close of the 
fourth century, another of these appalling waves of barbaric 
mundation rolled over northern Europe. The Huns, emerging 
from the northern frontiers of China, traversed the immense 
intervening deserts, and swept over European Russia, spread- 
ing everywhere flames and desolation. The historians of that 
day seem to find no language sufficiently forcible to describe 
the hideousness and the ferocity of these savages. They 
pressed down on the Romau empire as merciless as wolves, 
and the Csesars turned pale at the recital of their deeds of 
blood. 

It is indeed a revolting picture which contemporaneous 
history gives us of these barbarians. In their faces was con- 
centrated the ugliness of the hyena and the baboon. They 
tattooed their cheeks, to prevent the growth of their beards. 
They were short, thick-set, and with back bones curved 
almost into a semicircle. Herbs, roots and raw meat they 
devoured, tearing their food with their teeth or hewing it 
with their swords. To warm and soften their meat, they 
placed it under their saddles when riding. N^early all their 
lives they passed on horseback. "Wandering incessantly over 
tho vast plains, they had no fixed habitations, but warmly 
clad in the untanned skins of beasts, like the beasts they sle^^t 
wherever the night found them. They had no religion nor 
laws, no conception of ideas of honor; their language was a 
wretched jargon, and in their nature there seemed to be no 
moral sense to which compassion or mercy could plead. 

Such were the Huns as described by the ancient histori- 
ans. The Goths struggled against them in vain. They vrere 
crushed and subjugated. The king of the Goths, Hermanric, 
in chagrin and despair, committed suicide^ that he might es- 



PARENTAGE AND BIKTH OF EUSSIA. 21 

cape slavery. Thousands of the Goths, in their terror, 
crowded down into the Roman province of Thrace, now the 
Turkish province of Romania. The empire, then in its deca- 
dence, could not drive them back, and they obtained a per- 
manent foothold there. The Huns thus attained the suprem- 
acy throughout all of northern Europe. There were then 
very many tribes of diverse names peopling these vast realms, 
and incessant wars were waged between them. The domina- 
tion which the Huns attained was precarious, and not dis- 
tinctly defined. 

The terrible Attila ere long appears as the king of these 
Huns, about the middle of the fifth century. This wonderful 
barbarian extended his sway from the Volga to the Rhine, 
and from the Bosphorus to the shores of the Baltic. Where- 
ever he appeared, blood flowed in torrents. He swept the 
valley of the Danube with flame and sword, destroying cities, 
fortresses and villages, and converting the whole region into 
a desert. At the head of an army of seven hundred thousand 
men, he plunged all Europe into dismay. Both the Eastern 
and Western empire were compelled to pay him tribute. He 
even invaded Gaul, and upon the plains of Chalons was de- 
feated in one of the most bloody battles ever fought in Eu- 
rope. Contemporary historians record that one hundred and 
six thousand dead were left upon the field. With the death 
of Attila, the supremacy of the Huns vanished. The irrup- 
tion of the Huns was a devastating scourge, which terrified 
the world. Whole nations were exterminated in their march, 
until at last the horrible apparition disappeared, almost as 
suddenly as it arose. 

With the disappearance of the Huns, central Russia pre- 
sents to us the aspect of a vast waste, thinly peopled, with 
the wrecks of nations and tribes, debased and feeble, living 
upon the cattle they herded, and occasionally cultivating the 
soil. And now there comes forward upon this theater of 
violence and of blood another people, called the Sclavonians, 



22 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

more energetic and more intelligent than any who had precedea 
them. The origin of the Sclavonians is quite lost in the haze 
of distance, and in the savage wilds where they first appeared. 
The few traditions which have been gleaned respecting them 
are of very little authority. 

From about the close of the fifth century the inhabitants 
of the whole region juow embraced by European Russia, were 
called Sclavonians ; and yet it appears that these Sclavonians 
consisted of many nations, rude and warlike, with various dis- 
tinctive names. They soon began to crowd upon the Roman 
empire, and became more formidable than the Goths or the 
Huns had been. Wading through blood they seized province 
after province of the empire, destroying and massacring 
often in mere wantonness. The emperor Justinian was fre- 
quently compelled to purchase peace with them and to bribe 
them to alliance. 

And now came another w^ave of invasion, bloody and over- 
whelming. The Avars, from the north of China, swept over 
Asia, seized all the provinces on the Black Sea, overran 
Greece, and took possession of most of the country between 
the Volga and the Elbe. The Sclavonians of the Danube, 
however, successfully resisted them, and maintained their in- 
dependence. Generations came and went as these hordes, 
wild, degraded and v/retched, swept these northern wilds, in 
debasement and cruelty rivaling the wolves which howled in 
their forests. They have left no traces behind them, and the 
^ew records of their joyless lives which history has preserved, 
are merely the gleanings of uncertain ti'adition. The think- 
ing mind pauses in sadness to contemplate the spectacle of 
these weary ages, when his brother man was the most fero- 
cious of beasts, and when all the discipline of life tended only 
to sink him into deeper abysses of brutality and misery. 
There is here a problem in the divine government which no 
human wisdom can solve. There is consolation only in the 
announcement that w^hat we know not now, we shall know 



i,.i»ii.K-^AGE AND BIRTH OF RUSSIA. 2? 

hereafter. All these diverse nations blending have formed 
the present Russians. 

Along the shores of the Baltic, these people assumed the 
name of Scandinavians, and subsequently Normans. Toward 
the close of the eighth century, the Normans filled Europe 
with the renown of their exploits, and their banners bade 
defiance even to the armies of Charlemagne. Early in the 
ninth century they ravaged France, Italy, Scotland, England, 
and passed over to Ireland, where they built cities which re^ 
main to the present day. " There is no manner of doubt," 
writes M. Karamsin in his history of Russia, " that five hun- 
dred years before Christopher Columbus, they had discovered 
North America, and instituted commerce with the natives." 

It is not until the middle of the ninth century, that we 
obtain any really reliable information respecting the inhabit- 
ants of central Russia. They are described as a light-com- 
plexioned, flaxen-haired race, robust, and capable of great 
endurance. Their huts were cheerless, affording but little 
shelter, and they lived upon the coarsest food, often devouring 
their meat raw. The Greeks expressed astonishment at their 
agility in climbing precipitous cliffs, and admired the hardi- 
hood wdth which they plunged through bogs, and swam the 
most rapid and swollen streams. He who had the most ath- 
letic vigor was the greatest man, and all the ambition and 
energy of the nation w^r^ expended in the acquisition of 
strength and agility. 

TTiey ar€ ever described as strangers to fear, rushing un- 
thinkingly upon certain death. They were always ready to 
accept combat with the Roman legions. Entire strangers to 
military strategy, they made no attacks in drilled lines o? 
columns, but the -whole tumultuous mass, in wild disorde 
rushed upon the foe, with the most desperate daring, having 
no guide but their own ferocity and the chieftains who led 
small bands. Their weapons consisted of swords, javelins and 
poisoned arrows, and each man carried a heavy shield. M 



24 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

they crossed the Danube in their bloody forays, incited l>y 
ove of plunder, the inhabitants of the Roman villages i(jd 
before theni. When pursued by an invincible force taoy 
would relinquish life rather than their booty, even when the 
plunder was of a kind totally valueless in their savage homes, 
The ancient annals depict in appalling colors the crueUiiBt 
they exercised upon their captives. They were, however,, as 
patient in endurance as they were merciless in infliction. 
No keenness of torture could force from them a cry of 
pain. 

Yet these people, so ferocious, are described as remark- 
ably amiable among themselves, seldom quarreling, honest 
and truthful, and practicing hospitality with truly patriarchal 
grace. Whenever they left home, the door was imfastensd 
and food was left for any chance wayfarer. A guest TVas 
treated as a heavenly messenger, and was guided on his wij' 
with the kindest expressions for his welfare. 

The females, as in all barbaric countries, were exposed to 
every indignity. All the hard labor of life was thrown up m 
them. When the husband died, the widow was compelled ,€" 
cast herself upon the funeral pile which consumed his remair 3. 
It is said that this barbarous custom, which Christianity ab( 1- 
ished, was introduced to prevent the wife from secretly kifl. 
ing her husband. The wife was also regarded as the slave cf 
the husband, and they imagined that if she died at the sam 
time with her husband, she would serve him in another world. 
The wives often followed their husbands to the wars. From 
infancy the boys were trained to fight, and were taught that 
nothing was more disgraceful than to forgive an injury. 

A mother was permitted, if she wished, to destroy her 
female children ; but the boys were all preserved to add tt 
the military strength of the nation. It was lawful, also, for 
the children to put their parents to death when they ha;;' 
become infirm and useless. " Behold," exclaims a Ruf sian 
historian, "how a people naturally kind, when deprived oi 



PARENTAGE AND BIETH OF EITSSIA. 25 

the light of revelation can remorselessly outrage nature, and 
surpass in cruelty the most ferocious animals." 

In different sections of this vast region there were differ- 
ent degrees of debasement, influenced by causes no longer 
known. A tribe called Drevliens, Nestor states, lived in 
the most gloomy forests with the beasts and like the beasts. 
They ate any food which a pig would devour, and had as little 
idea of marriage as have sheep or goats. Among the Scla- 
vonians generally there appears to have been no aristocracy. 
Each family was an independent republic. Different tribes 
occasionally met to consult upon questions of common in- 
terest, when the men of age, and who had acquired reputation 
for wisdom, guided in counsel. 

Gradually during the progress of their wars an aristocracy 
arose. Warriors of renown became chiefs, and created for 
themselves posts of authority and honor. By prowess and 
plunder they acquired wealth. In their incursions into the 
empire, they saw the architecture of Greece and Rome, and 
thus incited, they began to rear castles and fortresses. He 
who was recognized as the leading warrior in time of battle, 
retained his authority in the days of peace, which were very 
few. The castle became necessary for the defense of the 
tribe or clan, and the chieftain became the feudal noble, in- 
vested with unlimited power. At one time every man who 
was rich enough to own a horse was deemed a noble. The 
first power recognized was only military authority. But the 
progress of civilization developed the absolute necessity of 
other powers to protect the weak, to repress crime, and to 
guide in the essential steps of nations emerging from dark- 
ness into light. With all nations advancing from barbarism, 
the process has ever been slow by which the civil authority 
has been separated from the military. It is impossible to 
educe from the chaos of those times any established princi- 
ples. Often the duke or leader was chosen with imposing 
ceremonies. Some men of commanding abilities would gather 



26 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

into their hands the reins of ahnost unlimited power, and 
would transmit that po\ver to their sons. Others were chiefa 
but in name. 

We have but dim glimpses of the early religion of thi' 
people. In the sixth century they are represented as regard 
ing with awe the deity whom they designated as the creator 
of thunder. The spectacle of the majestic storms which swept 
their plains and the lightning bolts hurled from an invisible 
liand, deeply impressed these untutored people. They en- 
deavored to appease the anger of the supreme being by the 
sacrifice of bulls and other animals. They also peopled the 
groves, the fountains, the rivers with deities; statues were 
rudely chiseled, into which they supposed the spirits of their 
gods entered, and which they worshiped. They deemed the 
supreme being himself too elevated for direct human adora- 
tion, and only ventured to approach him through gods of a 
secondary order. They believed in a fallen spirit, a god of 
evil, who was the author of all the calamities which afflict the 
human race. 

The polished Greeks chiseled their idols, from snow-white 
marble, into the most exquisite proportions of the human form. 
Many they invested with all the charms of loveliness, and en- 
dowed them with the most amiable attributes. The voluptu- 
ous Venus and the laurel-crowned Bacchus were their gods. 
But the Sclavonians, regarding their deities only as possessors 
of power and objects of terror, carved their idols gigantic in 
stature, and hideous in aspect. 

From these rude, scattered and discordant populations, the 
empire of Russia quite suddenly sprang into being. Its birth 
was one of the most extraordinary events history has trans- 
mitted to us. We have seen that the Normans, dwelling 
along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic, and 
visiting the most distant coasts with their commercial and 
predatory fleets, had attained a degree of power, intelligence 
and culture, which gave them a decided preeminence over 



PAEENTAGE AND BIRTH OF EUSSIA. 27 

the tribes who were scattered over the wilds of central 
Russia. 

A Sclavonian, whose name tradition says was Gostomysle, 
a man far superior to his countrymen in intelligence and saga- 
city, deploring the anarchy which reigned everywhere around 
him, and admiring the superior civilization of the Normans, 
])ersuaded several tribes unitedly to send an embassy to the 
Normans to solicit of them a king. The embassy was accom- 
panied by a strong force of these fierce warriors, who knew 
well how to fight, but who had become conscious that they 
did not know how to govern themselves. Their message was 
laconic but explicit : 

*' Our country," said they, "is grand and fertile, but under 
the reign of disorder. Come and govern us and reign over 
us." 

Three brothers, named Rurik, Sineous and Truvor, illus- 
trious both by birth and achievements, consented to assume 
the sovereignty, each over a third part of the united appli- 
cants ; each engaging to cooperate with and uphold the others. 
Escorted by the armed retinue which had come to receive 
them, they left their native shores, and entered the wilds of 
Scandinavia. Rurik established himself at Novgorod, on lake 
Ilmen. Sineous, advancing some three hundred miles- further, 
north-east, took his station at Bielo Ozero, on the shores of 
lake Bielo. Truvor went some hundred miles further south 
to Truvor, in the vicinity of Smolensk. 

Thus there were three sovereigns established in Rtissia, 
united by the ties of interest and consanguinity. It was then 
that this region acquired the name of Russia, from the Nor- 
man tribe who furnished these three sovereigns. The Russia 
which thus emerged into being was indeed an infant, com- 
pared with the gigantic empire in this day of its growing and 
vigorous manhood. It embraced then but a few thousand 
square miles, being all included in the present provinces of 
St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Pskov. But two years passed 



2fl THE EMPIBE OF RUSSIA. 

away ere Sineous and Truvor died, and Rnrik united their 
territories with his own, and thus established the Russian 
monarchy. The reahns of Rurik grew rapidly by annexa- 
tion, and soon extended east some two hundred miles beyond 
where Moscow now stands, to the head waters of the Yolga. 
They were bounded on the south-west by the Dwina. On the 
north they reached to the wild wastes of arctic snows. Over 
these distant provinces, Rurik established governors selected 
from his own nation, the Normans. These provincial govern- 
ors became feudal lords ; and thus, with the monarchy, the 
feudal system was implanted. 

Feudality was the natural first step of a people emerging 
from barbarism. The sovereign rewarded his favorites, or 
compensated his servants, civil and military, by ceding to them 
provinces of greater or less extent, with unlimited authority 
over the people subject to their control. These lords acknowl- 
edged fealty to the sovereign, paid a stipulated amount of trib- 
ute, and, in case of war, were bound to enter the field with 
a given number of men in defense of the crown. It was a 
system essential, perhaps, to those barbarous times when there 
was no easy communication between distant regions, no codes 
of laws, and no authority, before which savage men would 
bow, but that of the sword. 

At this time t\^o young Norman nobles, inspired with that 
love of war and spirit of adventure which characterized their 
countrymen, left the court of Rurik at Novgorod, where they 
had been making a visit, and with well-armed retainers, com- 
menced a journey to Constantinople to ofter their services to 
the emperor. It was twelve hundred miles, directly south, 
from Novgorod to the imperial city. The adventurers had 
advanced about half way, when they arrived at a little village, 
called Kief, upon the banks of the Dnieper. The location of 
the city was so beautiful, upon a commanding bluff, at the 
head of the navigation of this majestic stream, and the region 
around seemed so attractive, that the Norman adventurers, 



PARENTAGE AND BIRTH OF RUSSIA. 29 

Ascolod and Dir by name, decided to remain there. They 
were soon joined by others of their warlike countrymen. The 
natives appear to have made no opposition to tlieir rule, and 
thus Kief became the center of a new and independent Rus- 
sian kingdom. These energetic men rapidly extended their 
territories, raised a large army, which was thoroughly drilled 
in all the science of Norman warfare, and then audaciously 
declared war against Greece and attempted its subjugation. 
The Dnieper, navigable for boats most of the distance from 
Kief to the Euxine, favored their enterprise. They launched 
upon the stream two hundred barges, which they filled with 
their choicest troops. Rapidly they floated down the stream, 
spread their sails upon the bosom of the Euxine, entered the 
Bosporus, and anchoring their fleet at the mouth of the 
Golden Horn, laid siege to the city. The Emperor Michael 
III. then reigned at Constantinople. This Northmen invasion 
was entirely unexpected, and the emperor was absent, en- 
gaged in war with the Arabs. A courier was immediately dis- 
patched to inform him of the peril of the city. He hastily 
returned to his capital which he finally reached, after eluding, 
with much (difficulty, the vigilance of the besiegers. Just as 
the inhabitants of the city were yielding to despair, there 
arose a tempest, which swept the Bosporus with resistless 
fury. The crowded barges were dashed against each other, 
shattered, wrecked and sunk. The Christians of Constan- 
tinople justly attributed their salvation to the interposition 
of God. Ascolod and Dir, with the wrecks of their army, 
returned in chagrin to Kief. 

The historians of that period relate that the idolatrous 
Russians were so terrified by this display of the divine dis- 
pleasure that they immediately sent embassadors to Constan- 
tinople, professing their readiness to embrace Christianity, 
and asking that they might receive the rite of baptism. 
In attestation of the fact that Christianity at this period 
entered Russia, we are referred to a well authenticated 



30 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

letter, of the patriarch Photius, written at the close of the 
year 866. 

"The Russians," he says, "so celebrated for their cruelty, 
conquerors of their neighbors, and who, in their pride, dared 
to attack the Roman empire, have already renounced their su- 
perstitions, and have embraced the religion of Jesus Christ. 
Lately our most formidable enemies, they have now become 
our most faithful friends. We have recently sent them a 
bishop and a priest, and they testify the greatest zeal for 
Christianity." 

It was in this way, it seems, that the religion of our 
Saviour first entered barbaric Russia. The gospel, thus wel- 
comed, soon became firmly established at Kief, and rapidly 
extended its conquests in all directions. The two Russian 
kingdoms, that of Rurik in the north, and that of Ascolod and 
Dir on the Dnieper, rapidly extended as these enterprising 
kings, by arms, subjected adjacent nations to their sway. 
Rurik remained upon the throne fifteen years, and then died, 
surrendering his crown to his son Igor, still a child. A rela- 
tive, Oleg, was intrusted with the regency, during the mi- 
nority of the boy king. Such was the state of Russia in the 
year 879. 

In that dark and cruel age, war was apparently the only 
thought, military conquest the only glory. The regent, Oleg, 
taking with him the young prince Igor, immediately set out 
with a large army on a career of conquest. Marching directly 
south some hundred miles, and taking possession of all the 
country by the way, he arrived at last at the head waters of 
the Dnieper. The renown of the kingdom of Ascolod and 
Dir had reached his ears ; and aware of their military skill 
and that the ranks of their army were filled with Norman 
warriors, Oleg decided to seize the two sovereigns by strata- 
gem. As he cautiously approached Kief, he left his army in 
a secluded encampment, and with a few chosen troops floated 
down the stream in barges, disguised as merchant boats. 



PARENTAGE AND BIETH OF EUSSIA. 31 

Landing in the night beneaih the high and precipitous banks 
near the town, he placed a number of his soldiers in ambus- 
cade, and then calling upon the princes of Kief, informed 
them that he had been sent by the king of JSTovgorod, with a 
commercial adventure down the Dnieper, and invited them to 
visit his barges. 

The two sovereigns, suspecting no guile, hastened to the 
banks of the river. Suddenly the men in ambush rose, and 
piercing them with arrows and javelins, they both fell dead at 
the feet of Oleg. The two victims of this perfidy were im- 
mediately buried upon the spot where they fell. In com- 
memoration of this atrocity, the church of St. Nicholas has 
been erected near the place, and even to the present day 
the inhabitants of Kief conduct the traveler to the tomb of 
Ascolod and Dir. Oleg, now marshaling his army, marched 
triumphantly into the town, and, without experiencing any 
formidable opposition, annexed the conquered realm to the 
northern kingdom. 

Oleg was charmed with his conquest. The beautiful site of 
the town, the broad expanse of the river, the facilities which 
the stream presented for maritime and military adventures 
so delighted him that he exclaimed, 

" Let Kief be the mother of all the Russian cities." 

Oleg established his army in cantonments, strengthened it 
with fresh recruits, commenced predatory excursions on every 
side, and soon brought the whole region, for many leagues 
around, under his subjection. All the subjugated nations 
were compelled to pay him tribute, though, with the sagac- 
ity which marked his whole course, he made the tax so light 
as not to be burdensome. The territories of Oles: were now 
vast, widely scattered, and with but the frailest bond of union 
between them. Between the two capitals of Novgorod and 
Kief, which were separated by a distance of seven or eight 
hundred miles, there were many powerful tribes still claiming 
independence. 



32 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. - 

Oleg directed his energies against them, and his march of 
conquest was resistless. In the course of two years he estab- 
lished his undisputed sway over the whole region, and thus 
opened unobstructed communication between his northern 
and southern provinces. He established a chain of military 
posts along the line, and placed his renowned warriors in 
feudal authority over numerous provinces. Each lord, in his 
castle, was supreme in authority over the vassals subject to 
his sway. Life and death were in his hands. The fealty he 
owed his sovereign w^as paid in a small tribute, and in military 
service with an appointed number of soldiers whom he led 
into the field and supported. 

Having thus secured safety in the north, Oleg turned his 
attention to the south. With a well-disciplined army, he 
marched down the left bank of the river, sweeping the country 
for an hundred miles in width, everywhere planting his ban- 
ners and establishing his simple and effective government of 
baronial lords. It was easy to weaken any formidable or sus- 
pected tribe, by the slaughter of the warriors. There were 
two safeguards against insurrection. The burdens imposed 
upon the vassals were so light as to induce no murmurings ; 
and all the feudal lords were united to sustain each other. 
The first movement towards rebellion was drowned in blood. 

Igor, the legitimate sovereign, had now attained his ma- 
jority ; but, accustomed as he had long been, to entire obedi- 
ence, he did not dare to claim the crown from a regent 
finished with the briUiancy of his achievements, who had all 
power in his hands, and who, by a nod, could remove him 
for ever out of his way. 

Igor was one day engaged in the chase, when at the door 
of a cottage, in a small village near Kief, he saw a young 
peasant girl, of marvelous grace and beauty. She was a 
Norman girl of humble parentage. Young Igor, inflamed by 
her beauty, immediately rode to the door and addressed her. 
Her voice was melody, her smile ravishing, and in her replies 



PARENTAGE AND BIKTH OF EUSSIA. 33 

to his questionings, she developed pride of character, quick- 
ness of intelligence and invincible modesty, which charmed 
him and instantly won his most passionate admiration. The 
young prince rode home sorely wounded. Cupid had shot 
one of his most fiery arrows into the very center of his heait. 
Though many high-born ladies had been urged upon Igor, he 
renounced them all, and allowing beauty to triumph over 
birth, honorably demanded and received the hand of the 
lowly-born yet princely-minded and lovely Olga. They were 
married at Kief in the year 903. 

The revolution at Kief had not interrupted the friendly 
relations existing between Kief and Constantinople. The 
Christians of the imperial city made great eflfbrts, by sending 
missionaries to Kief, to multiply the number of Christians 
there. Oleg, though a pagan, granted free toleration to 
Christianity, and reciprocated the presents and friendly mes- 
sages he received from the emperor. But at length Oleg, 
having consolidated his realms, and ambitions of still greater 
renown, wealth and power, resolved boldly to declare war 
against the empire itself, and to march upon Constantinople. 
The warriors from a hundred tribes, each under their feudal 
lord, were ranged around Lis banners. For miles along the 
banks of the Dnieper at Kief, the river was covered with 
barges, two thousand in number. An immense body of 
cavalry accompanied the expedition, following along the 
shore. 

The navigation of the river, which poured its flood through 
a channel nearly a thousand miles in length from Kief to the 
Euxine, was difficult and perilous. It required the blind, un- 
thinking courage of semi-barbarians to undertake such an en- 
terprise. There were many cataracts, down which the flotilla 
would be swept over foaming billows and amidst jagged rocks. 
In many places the stream was quite impassable by boats, 
and it was necessary to take all the barges, with their contents, 
on shore, and drag them for miles through the forest, again 



34 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

to laimcli them upon smoother water ; and all this time they 
were exposed to attacks from numerous and ferocious foes. 
Having arrived at the mouth of the Dnieper, they had still 
six or eight hundred miles of navigation over the waves of 
that storm-swept sea. And then, at the close, they had to 
encounter, in deadly fight, all the power of the Roman em- 
pire. But unintimidated by these perils, Oleg, leaving Igor 
with his bride at Kief, launched his boats upon the current, 
and commenced his desperate enterprise. 



CHAPTEH II. 

GEOWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OP RUSSIA 
From 910 to 973. 



Expedition to Constantinoplk. — Treaty with the Empeeoe. — Last Days of Oleo, — 
His Death. — Igoe assumes the Sceptee. — His Expedition to the Don. — Descent 
UPON Constantinople. — His Defeat. — Second Expedition. — Pusillanimity of 
the Greeks. — Death of Igoe. — Eegency of Olga. — Her Character. — Succession 
OF Sviatoslaf. — His Impiety and Ambition. — Conquf^t of Bulgaria. — Division 
OF THE Empire. — Defeat, Euin and Death of Sviatoslaf. — Civil War. — Death 
OF Oleg. — Flight of Vladimee. — Supekmaoy of Yaropolk. 



THE fleet of Oleg successfully accomplished the navigation 
of the Dnieper, followed by the horse along the shores. 
Each barge carried forty warriors. Entering the Black Sea, 
they spread their sails and ran along the western coast to the 
mouth of the Bosporus. The enormous armament approach- 
ing the imperial city of Constantine by sea and by land, com- 
pletely invested it. The superstitious Leon, surnaraed the 
Philosopher, sat then upon the throne. He was a feeble man 
engrossed with the follies of astrology, and without making 
preparations for any vigorous defense, he contented himself 
with stretching a chain across the Golden Horn to prevent 
the hostile fleet from entering the harbor. The cavalry of 
Oleg, encountering no serious opposition, burnt and plun- 
dered all the neighboring regions. The beautiful villas of 
the wealthy Greeks, their churches and villages all alike fell 
a prey to the flames. Every species of cruelty and barbar- 
ity was practiced by the ruthless invaders. 

The effeminate Greeks from the walls of the city gazed 
upon this sweep of desolation, but ventured not to march 



36 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

from behind tlieir ramparts to assail the foe. Oleg draw liis 
barges upon the shore and dragged them on wheels towards 
the city, that he might from them construct instruments and 
engines for scaling the walls. The Greeks were so terrified at 
this spectacle of energy, that they sent an embassage to Oleg, 
imploring peace, and offering to pay tribute. To conciliate 
the invader they sent him large presents of food and wine. 
Oleg, apprehensive that the viands were poisoned, refused to 
accept them. He however demanded enormous tribute of 
the emperor, to which terms the Greeks consented, on con- 
dition that Oleg would cease hostilities, and return peaceably 
to his country. Upon this basis of a treaty, the Russian army 
retired to some distance from the city, and Oleg sent four 
commissioners to arrange with the emperor the details of 
peace. The humiliating treaty exacted was as follows : 

I. The Greeks engage to give twelve grivnas to each 
man of the Russian army, and the same sum to each of the 
w^arriors in the cities governed by the dependent princes of 
Oleg. 

II. The embassadors, sent by Russia to Constantinople, 
shall have all their expenses defrayed by the emperor. And, 
moreover, the emperor engages to give to every Russian raer- 
chant in Greece, bread, wine, meat, fish and fruits, for the 
space of six months ; to grant him free access to the public 
baths, and to furnish him, on his return to his country, with 
food, anchors, sails, and, in a word, with every thing he needs. 

On the other hand the Greeks propose that the Russians, 
who visit Constantinople for any other purposes than those of 
commerce, shall not be entitled to this supply of their tables. 
The Russian prince shall forbid his embassadors from giv- 
ing any offense to the inhabitants of the Grecian cities or 
provinces. The quarter of Saint Meme shall be especially ap- 
propriated to the Russians, who, upon their arrival, shall 
give information to the city council. Their names shall be 
inscribed, and there shall be paid to them every month the 



GEOWTH AND CONSOLIDATIOlSr OF RUSSIA. 3'J 

suras necessary for their support, no matter from what part of 
Russia they may have come. A particular gate shall be des- 
ignated by which they may enter the city, accompanied by 
an imperial commissary. They shall enter without arms, and 
never more than fifty at a time ; and they shall be permitted, 
freely, to engage in trade in Constantinople without the pay- 
ment of any tax. 

This treaty, by which the emperor placed his neck beneath 
the feet of Oleg, was ratified by the most imposing ceremo- 
nies of religion. The emperor took the oath upon the evan- 
gelists. Oleg swore by his sword and the gods of Russia. 
In token of his triumph Oleg proudly raised his shield, as a 
banner, over the battlements of Constantinople, and returned, 
laden with riches, to Kief, where he was received with the 
most extravagant demonstrations of adulation and joy. 

The treaty thus made with the emperor, and which is pre- 
served in full in the Russian annals, shows that the Russians 
were no longer savages, but that they had so far emerged 
from that gloomy state as to be able to appreciate the sacred- 
ness of law, the claims of honor and the authority of treaties. 
It is observable that no signatures are attached to this treaty 
but those of the Norman princes, which indicates that the 
original Sclavonic race were in subjection as the vassals of 
the Normans. Oleg appears to have placed in posts of au- 
thority only his own countrymen. 

Oleg now, as old age was advancing, passed many years 
in quietude. Surrounded by an invincible army, and with 
renown which pervaded the most distant regions, no tribes 
ventured to disturb his repose. His distance from southern 
Europe protected him from annoyance from the powerful 
nations which were forming there. His latter years seem to 
have been devoted to the arts of peace, for he secured to an 
unusual degree the love, as well as the admiration, of his sub 
jects. Ancient annalists record that all Russia moaned and 
wept when he died. He is regarded, as more prominently 



38 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

^than any other man, the founder of the Russian empire. He 
united, though by treachery and blood, the northern and 
southern kingdoms under one monarch. He then, by con- 
quest, extended his empire over vast realms of barbarians, 
bringing them all under the simple yet effective government 
of feudal lords. He consolidated this empire, and by sagacious 
measures, encouraging arts and commerce, he led his barbar- 
ous people onward in the paths of civilization. He gave Rus- 
sia a name and renown, so that it assumed a position among 
the nations of the globe, notwithstanding its remote position 
|-amidst the wilds of the ISTorth. His usurpation, history can 
I not condemn. In those days any man had the right to govern 
who had the genius of command. Genius was the only legiti- 
macy. But he was an assassin, and can never be washed 
clean from that crime. He died after a reign of thirty-three 
years, and was buried, with all the displays of pomp which 
that dark age could furnish, upon one of the mountains in the 
vicinity of Kief, which mountain for many generations was 
called the Tomb of Oleg. 

Igor now assumed the reins of government. He had lived 
in Kief a quiet, almost an effeminate life, with his beautiful 
bride Olga. A very powerful tribe, the Drevolians, which 
had been rather restive, even under the rigorous sway of 
Oleg, thought this a favorable opportunity to regain their 
independence. They raised the standard of revolt. Igor 
crushed the insurrection with energy which astonished all 
who knew him, and which spread his fame far and wide 
through all the wilds of Russia, as a monarch thoroughly 
capable of maintaining his command. 

Far away in unknown realms, beyond the eastern boundary 
of Russia, where the gloomy waves of the Irtish, the Tobol, 
the Oural and the Volga flow through vast deserts, washing 
the base of fir-clad mountains, and murmurinor throuofh wil- 
dern esses, the native domain of wolves and bears, there were 
vandering innumerable tribes, fierce, cruel and barbarous, 



GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATIOlSr OF EUSSTA. 39 

who held the frontiers of Russia in continual terror. They 
were called by the generel name of Petchenegues. Igor was 
compelled to be constantly on the alert to defend his vast 
frontier from the irruptions of these merciless savages. This 
incessant warfare led to the organization of a very efficient 
military power, but there was no glory to be acquired in 
merely driving back to their dens these wild assailants. 
Weary of the conflict, he at last consented to purchase a 
peace with them ; and then, seeking the military renown 
which 01 eg had so signally acquired, he resolved to imitate 
his example and make a descent upon Constantinople. The 
annals of those days, which seem to be credible, state that 
he floated down the Dnieper with ten thousand barges, and 
spread his sails upon the waves of the Euxine. Entering the 
Bosporus, he landed on both shores of that beautiful strait, 
and, with the most w^anton barbarity, ravaged the country 
far and near, massacring the inhabitants, pillaging the towns 
and committing all the buildings to the flames. 

There chanced to be at Constantinople, a very energetic 
Roman general, who was dispatched against them with a 
Greek fleet and a numerous land force. The Greeks in civili- 
zation were far in advance of the Russians. The land force 
drove the Russians to their boats, and then the Grecian fleet 
bore down upon them. A new instrument of destruction had 
been invented, the terrible Greek fire. Attached to arrows 
and javelins, and in great balls glowing with intensity of flame 
which water would not quench, it was thrown into the boats of 
the Russians, enkindlino- conflasfration and exciting: terror inde- 
scribable. It seemed to the superstitious followers of Igor, that 
they were assailed by foes hurling the lightnings of Jove. In 
this fierce conflict Igor, having lost a large number of barges, 
and many of his men, drew off his remaining forces in disor- 
der, and they slowly returned to their country in disgrace, ema- 
ciate and starving. Many of the Russians taken captive by the 
Greeks were put to death with the most horrible barbarities. 



40 THEEMPIREOFKUSSIA. 

Igor, exasperated rather than intimidated by this terrible 
disaster, resolved upon another expedition, that he might re- 
cover his lost renown by inflicting the most terrible vengeance 
ujDon the Greeks. He spent two years in making preparations 
for the enterprise ; called to his aid warriors from the most dis- 
tant tribes of the empire, and purchased the alliance of the 
Petchenegues. With an immense array of barges, which for 
leagues covered the surface of the Dnieper, and with an im- 
mense squadron of cavalry following along the banks, he com- 
menced the descent of the river. The emperor was informed 
that the whole river was filled with barges, descending for 
the siege and sack of Constantinople. In terror he sent em- 
bassadors to Igor to endeavor to avert the storm. 

The imperial embassadors met the flotilla near the mouth 
of the Dnieper, and oflTered, in the name of the emperor, to 
pay the same tribute to Igor which had been paid to Oleg, 
and even to increase that tribute. At the same time they en- 
deavored to disarm the cupidity of the foe by the most mag- 
nificent presents. Igor halted his troops, and collecting his 
chieftains in counsel, communicated to them the message of 
the emperor. They replied, 

"If the emperor will give us the treasure we demand, 
without our exposing ourselves to the perils of battle, what 
more can we ask ? Who can tell on which side will be 
the victory ?" 

Thus influenced, Igor consented to a treaty. The open- 
ing words of this curious treaty are worthy of being recorded. 
They were as follows : 

" We, the embassadors of Igor, solemnly declare that this 
treaty shall continue so long as the sun shall shine, in defiance 
of the machinations of that evil spirit who is the enemy of 
peace and the fomenter of discord. The Russians promise 
never to break this alliance with the horde ; those who have 
been baptized, under penalty of temporal and eternal punish- 
ment from God ; others, under the penalty of being for ever 



GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OF RUSSIA. 41 

deprived of the protection of Peroune ;* of never being able 
to protect themselves with their shields ; of being doomed to 
lacerate themselves with their own swords, arrows and other 
arms, and of being slaves in this world and that which is to 
come." 

This important treaty consisted of fourteen articles, drawn 
up with great precision, and in fact making the Greek em- 
peror as it were but a vassal of the Russian monarch. One 
of the articles of the treaty is quite illustrative of the times. 
It reads, 

" If a Christian kills a Russian, or if a Russian kills a 
Christian, the friends of the dead have a right to seize the 
murderer and kill him." 

This treaty was concluded at Constantinople, between the 
emperor and the embassadors of Igor. Imperial embassadors 
were sent with the written treaty to Kief. Igor, with impos- 
ing ceremonies, ascended the sacred hill where was erected 
the Russian idol of Peroune, and with his chieftains took a 
solemn oath of friendship to the emperor, and then as a gage 
of their sincerity deposited at the feet of the idol their arms 
and shields of gold. The Christian nobles repaired to the 
cathedr^ of St. Elias, the most ancient church of Kief, and 
there took the same oath at the altar of the Christian's God. 
The renowned Russian historian, Nestor, who was a monk in 
the monastery at Kief, records that at that time there were 
numerous Christians in Kief. 

Igor sent the imperial embassadors back to Constantinople 
laden with rich presents. Elated by wealth and success, the 
Russian king began to impose heavier burdens of taxation 
upon subjugated nations. The Drevliens resisted. With an 
insufficient force Igor entered their territories. The Drev- 
liens, with the fury of desperation, fell upon him and he was 
slain, and his soldiers put to rout. During his reign he 
held together the vast empire Oieg had placed in his hands, 

* One of the Gods of the Russians. 



42 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

though he had not been able to extend the boundaries of his 
country. It is worthy of notice, and of the highest pi'aise, 
that Igor, though a pagan, imitating the example of Oleg, 
permitted perfect toleration throughout his realms. The 
gospel of Christ was freely preached, and the Christians en- 
joyed entire freedom of faith and worship. His reign con- 
tinued thirty-two years. 

Sviatoslaf, the son of Igor, at the time of his father's un- 
happy death was in his minority. The empire was then in 
great peril. The Drevliens, one of the most numerous and 
warlike tribes, were in open and successful revolt. The army 
accustomed to activity, and now in idleness, was very restive. 
The old Norman generals, ambitious and haughty, w-ere dis- 
posed to pay but little respect to the claims of a prince who 
was yet in his boyhood. But Providence had provided for 
this exigence. Olga, the mother of Sviatoslaf, assumed the 
regency, and developed traits of character which place her 
in the ranks of the most extraordinary and noble of women. 
Calling to her aid tw^o of the most influential of the nobles, 
one of whom was the tutor of her son and the other com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, she took the helm of state, and 
developed powers of wisdom and energy which have rarely 
been equaled and perhaps never surpassed. 

She immediately sent an army into the country of the 
Drevliens, and punished with terrible severity the murderers 
of her husband. The powerful tribe was soon brought again 
Into subjection to the Russian crown. As a sort of defiant 
parade of her power, and to overaw^e the turbulent Drevliens, 
she traversed their whole country, wdth her son, accompanied 
by a very imposing retinue of her best warriors. Having 
thus brought them to subjection, she instituted over them a 
just and benevolent system of government, that they might 
have no occasion again to rise in revolt. They soon became 
so warmly attached to her that they ever were foremost in 
support of her power. 



GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OF RUSSIA. 43 

One year had not passed ere Olga was seated as firmly 
upon the throne as Oleg or Igor had ever been. She then, 
leaving her son Sviatoslaf at Kief, set out on a tour through 
her northern provinces. Everywhere, by her wise measures 
and her deep interest in the welfare of her subjects, she won 
admiration and love. .The annals of those times are full of 
her praises. The impression produced by this visit was not 
effaced from the popular mind for five hundred years, being 
handed down from father to son. The sledge in which she 
traveled was for many generations preserved as a sacred 
relic. 

She returned to Kief, and there resided with her son, for 
many years, in peace and happiness. The whole empire was 
tranquil, and in the lowly cabins of the Russians there was 
plenty, and no sounds of war or violence disturbed the quiet 
of their lives. This seems to have been one of the most 
serene and pleasant periods of Russian history. This noble 
woman was born a pagan. But the gospel of Christ was 
preached in the churches of Kief, and she heard it and was 
deeply impressed with its sublimity and beauty. Her life 
was drawing to a close. The grandeur of empire she was 
soon to lay aside for the darkness and the silence of the tomb. 
These thoughts oppressed her mind, which was, by nature, 
elevated, sensitive and refined. She sent for the Christian 
pastors and conversed with them about the immortality of 
the soul, and salvation through faith in the atonement of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The good seed of 
Christian truth fell into good soil. Cordially she embraced 
the gtJspel. 

That her renunciation of paganism, and her confession of 
the Saviour might be more impressive, she decided to go to 
Constantinople to be baptized by the venerable Christian 
patriarch, who resided there. The Christian emperor, Con- 
stantine Porphyrogenete, informed of her approach, pre- 
pai-ed to receive her with all the pomp worthy of so illus- 



14 THE EM PI HE OF RUSSIA. 

trions a princess of so powerful a people. He has himself 
left a record of these most interesting ceremonies. Olga 
approached the imperial palace, with a very splendid suite 
composed of nobles of her court, of ladies of distinction, and 
of the Russian embassadors and merchants residing at Con- 
stantinople. The emperor, with a corresponding suite of 
splendor, met the Russian queen at a short distance from the 
palace, and conducted her, with her retinue, to the apartments 
arranged for their entertainment. It was the 9th of Septem- 
ber, 955. In the great banqueting hall of the palace there 
was a magnificent feast prepared. The guests were regaled 
with richest music. After such an entertainment as even the 
opulence of the East had seldom furnished, there was an ex- 
change of presents. The emperor and the queen strove to 
outvie each other in the richness and elegance of their gifts. 
Every individual in the two retinues, received presents of 
great value. 

The queen at her baptism received the Christian name of 
Helen. We do not find any record of the ceremonies per- 
formed at her baptism. It is simply stated that the emperor 
himself stood as her sponsor. Olga, as she returned to Kief, 
with her baptismal vows upon her, and in the freshness of her 
Christian hopes, manifested great solicitude for her son, who 
still continued a pagan. But Sviatoslaf was a wild, pleasure- 
seeking young man, who turned a deaf ear to all his mother's 
counsels. The unbridled license which paganism granted, was 
much more congenial to his unrenewed heart than the salu- 
tary restraints of the gospel of Christ. The human heart was 
I then and there, as now and here. The Russian historian Ka- 
ramsin says, 

" In vain this pious mother spoke to her son of the happi- 
ness of being a Christian ; of the peaceful spirit he would 
find in the worship of the true God. ' How can I,' replied 
Sviatoslaf, * make a profession of this new religion, whicli will 
expose me to the ridicule of all my companions in arms ?' In 



GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OF RUSSIA. 45 

vain Olga urged upon him that liis example might induce 
others to embrace the gospel of Christ. The young prince 
was inflexible. He made no effort to prevent others from 
becoming Christians, but did not disguise his contempt for the 
Christian faith, and so persistently rejected all the exhorta- 
tions of his mother, whom he still tenderly loved, that she 
was at last forced to silence, and could only pray, in sadness, 
that God would open the eyes and touch the heart of her 
child." 

The young prince having attained his majority in the year 
964, assumed the crown. His soul was fired with the ambition 
of signalizing himself by great military exploits. The blood 
of Igor, of Oleg and of Rurik coursed through his veins, and 
he resolved to lead the Russian arms to victories which should 
eclipse all their exploits. He gathered an immense army, and 
looked eagerly around to find some arena worthy of the dis- 
play of his genius. 

His character was an extraordinary one, combining all the 
virtues of ancient chivalry; virtues which guided by Christian 
faith, constitute the noblest men, but which without piety 
constitute a man the scourge of his race. Fame was the God 
of Sviatoslaf. To acquire the reputation of a great warrior, 
he was willing to whelm provinces in blood. But he was too 
magnanimous to take any mean advantage of their weakness. 
He would give them fair warning, that no blow should be 
struck, assassin-like, stealthily and in the dark. 

He accustomed his body. Spartan-like, to all the fatigues 
and exposures of war. He indulged in no luxury of tents or 
carriages, and ate the flesh of horses and wild beasts, which he 
roasted himself, over the coals. In his campaigns the ground 
was his bed, the sky his curtain, his horse blanket his covering, 
and the saddle his pillow; and he seemed equally regardless 
of both heat and cold. His soldiers looked to him as their 
model and emulated his hardihood. Turninc: his attention 
firtjt to the vast and almost unknown realms spreading out 



46 THE EMPIRE vtF RUSSIA. 

towards the East, he sent word to the tribes on the Don and 
the Volga, that he was coming to fight them. As soon as 
they had time to prepare for their defense he followed his 
word. Here was chivalric crime and chivalric magnanimity. 
Marching nine hundred miles directly east from Kief, over the 
Russian plains, he came to the banks of the Don. The region 
was inhabited by a very powerful nation called the Khozars. 
They were arrayed under their sovereign, on the banks of 
the river to meet the foe. The Khozars had even sent for 
Greek engineers to aid them in throwing up their fortifica- 
tions; and they were in an intrenched camp constructed with 
much military skill. A bloody battle ensued, in which thou- 
sands were slain. But Sviatoslaf was victor, and the territory 
was annexed to Russia, and Russian nobles were placed in 
feudal possession of its provinces. The conqueror then fol- 
lowed down the Don to the Sea of Azof, fighting sanguinary 
battles all the way, but everywhere victorious. The terror 
of his arms inspired wide-spread consternation, and many 
tribes, throwing aside their weapons, bowed the neck to the 
Russian king, and implored his clemency. 

Sviatoslaf returned to Kief wnth waving banners, exult- 
ing in his renown. He was stimulated, not satiated, by this 
success ; and now planned another expedition still more peril- 
ous and grand. On the south of the Danube, near its mouth, 
was Bulgaria, a vast realm, populous and powerful, which had 
long bid defiance to all the forces of the Roman empire. The 
conquest of Bulgaria was an achievement worthy of the chiv- 
alry even of Sviatoslaf With an immense fleet of barges, con- 
taining sixty thousand men, he descended the Dnieper to the 
Euxine. Coastingr alons: the western shore his fleet entered 
the mouth of the Danube. The Bulgarians fought like heroes 
to repel the invaders. All their efforts were in vain. The 
Russians sprang from their barges on the shore, and, pro- 
tected by their immense bucklers, sword in hand, routed the 
Bulgarians with great slaughter. Cities and villages rapidly 



GBOWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OF RUSSIA. 47 

Bubmitted to the conqueror. The king of Bulgaria in liis 
despair rushed upon death. Sviatoslaf, laden with the spoils 
of the vanquished and crowned with the laurels of victory, 
surrendered himself to rejoicing and to all the pleasures of 
voluptuous hidulgence. 

From these dissipations Sviatoslaf was suddenly recalled 
by the tidings that his own capital was in danger ; that a 
neighboring tribe, of great military power, taking advantage 
of his absence with his army, had invested Kief and were 
hourly expected to take it by assault. In dismay he hastened 
his return, and found, to his inexpressible relief, that the 
besiegers had been routed by the stratagem and valor of a 
Russian general, and that the city and its inhabitants were 
thus rescued from destruction. 

But the Russian king, having tasted the pleasures of a 
more sunny clime, and having rioted in the excitements of 
sensual indulgence, soon became weary of tranquil life in Kief. 
He was also anxious to escape from the reproof which he 
always felt from the pious life of his mother. He therefore 
resolved to return to his conquered kingdom of Bulgaria. He 
said to his mother : 

" I had rather live in Bulc^aria than at Kief. Bulojaria is 
the center of wealth, nature and art. The Greeks send there 
gold and cloths ; the Hungarians silver and horses ; the Rus- 
sians furs, wax, honey and slaves." 

" Wait, my son, at least till after my death," exclaimed 
Olga. '* I am aged and inhrm, and very soon shall be con- 
veyed to ray tomb." 

This interview hastened the death of Olga. In four days 
she slept in Jesus. She earnestly entreated her son not to 
admit of any pagan rites at her funeral. She pointed out the 
place of her burial, and was interred with Christian prayei-s, 
accompanied by the lamentations and tears of all the people. 
Sviatoslaf, in liis foreign wars, which his mother greatly dis- 
approved, had left with her the administration of internal 



48 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

affairs. Nestor speaks of this pious princess in beautiful 
phrase as the morning star of salvation for Hussia. 

Sviatoslaf, having committed his mother to the tomb, 
made immediate preparations to transfer his capital from Kief 
to the more genial chme of Bulgaria. Had he been influenced 
by statesmanlike considerations it would have been an admir- 
able move. The climate was far preferable to that of Kief, 
the soil more fertile, and the openings for commerce, througli 
the Danube and the Euxine, immeasurably superior. But 
Sviatoslaf thought mainly of pleasure. 

It was now the year 970. Sviatoslaf had three sons, whom 
he established, though all in their minority, in administration 
of affairs in the realms from which he was departing. Yaro- 
polk received the government of Kief. His second son, Oleg, 
was placed over the powerful nation of Drevliens. A third 
son, Ylademer, the child of dishonor, not born in wedlock, 
was intrusted with the command at Novgorod. Having thus 
arranged these affairs, Sviatoslaf, with a well-appointed army, 
eagerly set out for his conquered province of Bulgaria. But 
in the meantime the Bulgarians had organized a strong force 
to resist the invader. The Russians conquered in a bloody 
battle, and, by storm, retook Peregeslavetz, the beautiful cap- 
ital of Bulgaria, where Sviatoslaf established his throne. 

The Greeks at Constantinople were alarmed by this near 
approach of the ever-encroaching and warlike Russians, and 
trembled lest they should next fall a prey to the rapacity of 
Sviatoslaf. The emperor, Jean Zimisces, immediately entered 
into an alliance with the Bulgarians, offering his daughter in 
marriage to Boris, son of their former king. A bloody war 
ensued. The Greeks and Bulgarians were victors, and Svia- 
toslaf, almost gnashing his teeth with rage, was driven back 
again to the cold regions of the North. The Greek historians 
give the following description of the personal appearance of 
Sviatoslaf. He* was of medium height and well formed. His 
physiognomy was severe and stern. His breast was broad, 



GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION OF RUSSIA. 49 

his neck thick, his eyes blue, with heavy eyebrows. He had 
a broad nose, heavy moustaches, but a slight beard. The 
large mass of hair which covered his head indicated his nobil- 
ity. From one of his ears there was suspended a ring of gold, 
decorated with two pearls and a ruby. 

As Sviatoslaf, with his shattered army, ascended the 
Dnieper in their boats, the Petchenegues, fierce tribes of 
barbarians, whom Sviatoslaf had subdued, rose in revolt 
against him. They gathered, in immense numbers, at one 
of the cataracts of the Dnieper, where it would be necessary 
for the Russians to transport their boats for some distance by 
land. They hoped to cut off his retreat and thus secure the 
entire destruction of their formidable foe. The situation of 
Sviatoslaf was now desperate. Nothing remained for him 
but death. With the abandonment of despair he rushed into 
the thickest of the foe, and soon fell a mangled corpse. How 
much more happy would have been his life, how much more 
happy his death, had he followed the counsels of his pious 
mother. Kouria, chief of the Petchenegues, cut off the head 
of Sviatoslaf, and ever after used his skull for a drinking cup. 
J The annalist Strikofski, states that he had engraved upon the 
skull the words, " In seeking the destruction of others you 
met with your own." 

A few fugitives from the army of Sviatoslaf succeeded in 
reaching Kief, where they communicated the tidings of the 
death of the king. The empire now found itself divided into 
three portions, each with its sovereign. Yaropolk was su- 
preme at Kief. Oleg reigned in the spacious country of the 
Drevliens. Vladimir was established at Nov^ororod. No one 
of these princes was disposed to yield the supremacy to either 
of the others. They were soon in arms. Yaropolk marched 
against his brother Oleg. , The two armies met about one 
hundred and fifty miles north-west of Kief, near the present 
town of Obroutch. Oleg and his force were utterly routed. 
As the whole army, in confusion and dismay, were in pcll- 



50 THE EMPIEE OP RUSSIA. 

mell fligHt, hotly pursued, the horse of Oleg fell. Nothing 
could resist, even for an instant, the onswelling flood. He 
was trampled into the mire, beneath the iron hoofs of squad- 
rons of horse and the tramp of thousands of mailed men. 
After the battle, his body was found, so mutilated that it was 
wdth difficulty recognized. As it was spread upon a mat be- 
fore the eyes of Yaropolk, he wept bitterly, and caused the 
remains to be interred with funeral honors. The monument 
raised to his memory has long since perished ; but even to 
the present day the inhabitants of Obroutch point out the 
spot where Oleg fell. 

Vladimir, prince of Novgorod, terrified by the fate of his 
brother Oleg, and apprehensive that a similar doom awaited 
him, sought safety in flight. Forsaking his realm he retired 
to the Baltic, and took refuge with the powerful Normans 
from whom his ancestors had come. Yaropolk immediately 
dispatched lieutenants to take possession of the government, 
and thus all Russia, as a united kingdom, was again brought 
under the sway of a single sovereign. 



CHAPTER III. 

REIGN^S OF VLADEMER, YAROSLAF, YSIASLAF AND VSEYOLOD 

From 9'73 to 1092. 

Flight OF Valdkmer.—IIi8 Stolen Bride. — The March tjpox Kief. — Debaitcheuy of 
Valdeuee.— Zealous Paganism.— Introduction of Christianity.— Baptism in tuk 
Dnieper. — Entire Change in the Character op Valdemer.— His Great Reforms. 
— His Death. — Usurpation of Sviatopolk the Miserable. — Accession of Yaros- . 
LAF, — His Administration and Death. — Accesston of Ysiaslaf. — His Strange 
Rkversms. — Hrs Death. — Vsevolod Ascends the Throne. — His Two Flights to 
Poland. — Appeals to the Pope. — Wars, Famine and Pestilence. — CnARACTr.fi 
OF Vsevolod. 

THOUGH Vlademer had fled from Russia, it was by no 
means with the intention of making a peaceful surrender 
of his realms to his ambitious brother. For two years he 
was incessantly employed, upon the shores of the Baltic, the 
home of his ancestors, in gathering adventurers around his 
flag, to march upon Novgorod, and chase from thence the lieu- 
tenants of Yaropolk. He at length, at the head of a strong 
army, triumphantly entered the city. Half way between 
Novgorod and Kief, was the city and province of Polotsk. 
The governor was a ISTorman named Rovgolod. His beauti- 
ful daughter Rogneda was afiianced to Yaropolk, and they 
were soon to be married. Vlademer sent embassadors to 
Rovgolod soliciting an alliance, and asking for the hand of 
his daughter. 

The proud princess, faithful to Yaropolk, returned the 
stinging reply, that she would never marry the son of a slave. 
We have before mentioned that the mother of Yaldemer was 
not the wife of his father. She was one of the maids of honor 
of Olga. This insult roused the indignation of Valdemer to 



52 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the highest pitch. Burning with rage he marched suddenly 
upon Polotsk, took the city by storm, killed Rovgolod and 
his two sons, and compelled Rogneda, his captive, to marry 
him, paying but little attention to the marriage ceremony. 
Having thus satiated his vengeance, he marched upon Kief, 
with a numerous army, composed of chosen warriors from 
various tribes. Yaropolk, alarmed at the strength with 
which his brother was approaching, did not dare to give him 
battle, but accumulated all his force behind the ramparts of 
Kief. The city soon fell into the hands of Valdemer, and 
Yaropolk, basely betrayed by one of his generals, was assas- 
sinated by two officers of Ylademer, acting under his au- 
thority. 

Ylademer was now in possession of the sovereign power, 
and he displayed as much energy in the administration of 
affairs as he had shown in the acquisition of the crown. He 
immediately imposed a heavy tax upon the Russians, to raise 
money to pay his troops. Having consolidated his power 
he became a very zealous supporter of the old pagan worship, 
rearing several new idols upon the sacred hill, and placuig in 
his palace a silver statue of Peroune. His soul seems to have 
been harrowed by the consciousness of crime, and he sought, 
by the cruel rites of a debasing superstition, to appease the 
wrath of the Gods. 

j Still remorse did not prevent him from plunging into the 
post revolting excesses of debauchery. The chronicles of 
those times state that he had three hundred concubines in 
bne of his palaces, three hundred in another at Kief, and two 
hundred at one of his country seats. It is by no means cer- 
tain that these are exaggerations, for every beautiful maiden in 
the empire was sought out, to be transferred to his harems. 
Paganism had no word of remonstrance to utter against such 
excesses. But Ylademer, devoted as he was to sensual indul- 
gence, was equally fond of war. His armies were ever on the 
move, and the cry of battle was never intermitted. On the 



J 

REIGN OF VLADEMEE. 53 

south-east he extended his conquests to the Carpathian moun- 
tains, where they skirt the plains of Hungary. In the north- 
west he extended his sway, by all the energies of fire and blood, 
even to the shores of the Baltic, and to the Gulf of Finland. 

Elated beyond measure by his victories, he attributed his 
success to the favor of his idol gods, and resolved to express 
his homage by offerings of human blood. He collected a 
number of handsome boys and beautiful girls, and drew lots 
to see which of them should be offered in sacrifice. The lot 
fell upon a tine boy from one of the Christian families. The 
frantic father interposed to save his child. But the agents of 
Ylademer fell fiercely upon them, and they both were slain 
and offered in sacrifice. Their names, Ivan and Theodore, 
are still preserved in the Russian church as the first Chris- 
tian martyrs of Kief. 

A few more years of violence and crime passed away, 
when Ylademer became the subject of that marvelous change 
which, nine hundred years before, had converted the persecu- 
ting Saul into the devoted apostle. The circumstances of his 
conversion are very peculiar, and are very minutely related 
by Nestor. Other recitals seem to give authenticity to the 
narrative. For some time Ylademer had evidently been in 
much anxiety respecting the doom which awaited him beyond 
the grave. He sent for the teachers of the different systems 
of religion, to explain to him the peculiarities of their faith. 
First came the Mohammedans from Bulgaria; then the Jews 
from Jerusalem ; then the Christians from the papal church 
at Rome, and then Christians from the Greek church at Con- 
stantinople. The Mohammedans and the Jews he rejected 
promptly, but was undecided respecting the claims of Rome 
and Constantinople. He then selected ten of the w^isest men 
in his kingdom and sent them to visit Rome and Constanti- 
nople and report in which country divine worship was con- 
ducted in the manner most worthy of the Supreme Being. 
The embassadors returning to Kief, reported warmly in favoi 



64 THE EMPIKE OF KUSSIA. 

of the Greek church. Still the mind of Ylademer was op- 
pressed with doubts. Hti assembled a number of the most 
virtuous nobles and asked their advice. The question was 
settled by the remark of one who said, " Had not the religion 
of the Greek church been the best, the sainted Olga would 
not have accepted it." 

This wonderful event is well authenticated ; Nestor gives 
a recital of it in its minute details ; and an old Greek manu- 
script, preserved in the royal library at Paris, records the visit 
of these ambassadors to Rome and Constantinople. Ylade- 
mer's conversion, however, seems, at this time, to have been 
intellectual rather than spiritual, a change in his policy of 
administration rather than a change of heart. Though this 
external change was a boundless blessing to Kussia, there is 
but little evidence that Vlademer then comprehended that 
moral renovation which the gospel of Christ effects as its 
crowning glory. He saw the absurdity of paganism ; he felt 
tortured by remorse ; perhaps he felt in some degree the in- 
fluence of the gospel which was even then faithfully preached 
in a few churches in idolatrous Kief; and he wished to 
elevate Russia above the degradation of brutal idolatry. 

He deemed it necessary that his renunciation of idola- 
try and adoption of Christianity should be accompanied with 
pomp which should produce a wide-spread impression upon 
Russia. He accordingly collected an immense army, de- 
scended the Dnieper in boats, sailed across the Black Sea, and 
entering the Gulf of Cherson, near Sevastopol, after several 
bloody battles took military possession of the Crimea. Thus 
victorious, he sent an embassage to the emperors Basil and 
Constantine at Constantinople, that he wished the young 
Christian princess Anne for his bride, and that if they did not 
promptly grant his request, he would march his army to attack 
the city. 

The emperors, trembling before the approach of such a 
power, replied that they would not withhold from him the 



EEIGN OF VLADEMER. 65 

hand of the princess if he would first embrace Christianity. 
Vlademer of course assented to this, which was the great 
object he had in view ; but demanded that the princess, who 
was a sister of the emperors, should first be sent to him. The 
unhappy maiden was overwhelmed with anguish at the recep- 
tion of these tidings. She regarded the pagan Russians as 
ferocious savages ; and to be compelled to marry their chief 
was to her a doom more dreadful than death. 
1 But policy, which is the religion of cabinets, demanded 
the sacrifice. The princess, weeping in despair, was con- 
ducted, accompanied by the most distinguished ecclesiastics 
and nobles of the empire, to the camp of Ylademer, where 
she was received with the most gorgeous demonstrations of 
rejoicing. The whole army expressed their gratification by 
all the utterances of triumph. The ceremony of baptism 
was immediately performed in the church of St. Basil, in the 
city of Cherson, and then, at the same hour, the marriage 
rites with the princess were solemnized. Vlademer ordered a 
large church to be built at Cherson in memory of his visit. 
He then returned to Kief, taking with him some preachers of 
distinction ; a communion service wrought in the most grace- 
ful proportions of Grecian art, and several exquisite specimens 
of statuary and sculpture, to inspire his subjects with a love 
for the beautiful. 

He accepted the Christian teachers as his guides, and 
devoted himself with extraordinary zeal to the work of per- 
suading all his subjects to renounce their idol-worship and 
accept Christianity. Every measure was adopted to throw 
contempt upon paganism. The idols were collected and 
burned in huge bonfires. The sacred statue of Peroune, the 
most illustrious of the pagan Gods, was dragged ignominiously 
through the streets, pelted with mud and scourged with whips, 
until at last, battered and defaced, it was dragged to the top 
of a precipice and tumbled headlong into the river, amidst the 
derision and hootings of the multitude. 



SI) T HE E M P IE EOF R U Sif I A . 

Our zealous new convert now issued a decree to all the 
people of Russia, rich and poor, lords and slaves, to repair 
to the river in the vicinity of Kief to be baptized. At an 
appointed day the people assembled by thousands on the 
banks of the Dnieper. Ylademer at length appeared, accom- 
panied by a great number of Greek pviests. The signal being 
given, the whole multitude, men, women and children, waded 
slowly into the stream. Some boldly advanced out up to 
their necks in the water ; others, more timid, ventured only 
waist deep. Fathers and mothers led their children by the 
liand. The priests, standing upon the shore, read the bap- 
tismal prayers, and chaunted the praises of God, and then 
conferred the name of Christians upon these barbarians. The 
multitude then came up from the water. 

Vlademer was in a transport of joy. His strange soul was 
Viot insensible to the sublimity of the hour and of the scene. 
Kaising his eyes to heaven he uttered the following prayer : 

" Creator of heaven and earth, extend thy blessing to 

these thy new children. May they know thee as the true 

God, and be strengthened by thee in the true religion. Come 

j to my help against the temptations of the evil spirit, and I will 

praise thy name." 

Thus, in the year 988, paganism was, by a blow, demol- 
ished in Russia, and nominal Christianity introduced through- 
out the whole realm. A Christian church was erected upon 
the spot where the statue of Peroune had stood. Architects 
were brought from Constantinople to build churches of stone 
in the highest artistic style. Missionaries were sent through- 
out the whole kingdom, to instruct the people in the doc- 
trines of Christianity, and to administer the rite of baptism. 
Nearly all the people readily received the new faith. Some, 
however, attached to the ancient idolatry, refused to abandon 
it. Vlademer, nobly recognizing the rights of conscience, 
resorted to no measures of violence. The idolaters were left 
undisturbed save by the teachings of the missionaries. Thus 



REIGN OF VLADEMEE. 67 

for several generations idolatry held a lingering life in the 
remote sections of the empire. Schools were established for 
the instruction of the young, learned teachers from Greece 
secured, and books of Christian biography translated into the 
Russian tongue. 

Vlademer had then ten sons. Three others were after- 
wards born to him. He divided his kingdom into ten prov- 
inces or states, over each of which he placed one of these 
sons as governor. On the frontiers of the empire he caused 
cities, strongly fortified, to be erected as safeguards against 
the invasion of remote barbarians. For several years Russia 
enjoyed peace with but trivial interruptions. The character 
of Vlademer every year wonderfully improved. Under his 
Christian teachers he acquired more and more of the Christian 
spirit, and that spirit was infused into all his public acts. He 
became the father of his people, and especially the friend and 
helper of the poor. The king was deeply impressed with tlie 
words of our Saviour, " Blessed are the merciful, for they 
shall obtain mercy," and with the declaration of Solomon, 
" He who giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." 

In the excess of his zeal of benevolence he was disposed 
to forgive all criminals. Thus crime was greatly multiplied, 
and the very existence of the state became endangered. The 
clergy, in a body, remonstrated with him, assuring him that 
God had placed him upon the throne expressly that he might 
punish the wicked and thus protect the good. He felt the 
force of this reasoning, and instituted, though with much re- 
luctance, a more rigorous government. War had been his 
passion. In this respect also his whole nature seemed to be 
changed, and nothing but the most dire necessity could lead 
him to an appeal to arms. The princess Anne appears to 
have been a sincere Christian, and to have exerted the most 
salutary influence upon the mind of her husband. In the 
midst of these great measures of reform, sudden sickness 
seized Vlademer in his palace, and he died, in the year 1015, 

3* 



68 THE EMPIRE OF ElTSSIA. 

SO unexpectedly that he appointed no successor. His death 
caused universal lamentations, and thousands crowded to the 
church of Notre Dame, to take a last look of their beloved 
sovereign, whose body reposed there for a time in state, in a 
marble coffin. The remains were then deposited by the side 
of his last wife, the Christian princess Anne, who had died a 
few years before. The Russian historian, Kararasin, says : 

" This prince, whom the church has recognized as equal 
to the apostles, merits from history the title of Great. It is 
God alone who can know whether Ylademer was a true Chris- 
tian at heart, or if he were influenced simply by political con- 
siderations. It is sufficient for us to state that, after havinsr 
embraced that divine religion, Vlademer appears to have been 
sanctified by it, and he developed a totally diiferent character 
from that which he exhibited when involved in the darkness 
of paganism." 

One of the sons of Ylademer, whose name was Sviatopolk, 
chanced to be at Kief at the time of his father's death. He 
resolved to usurp the throne and to cause the assassination 
of all the brothers from whom he could fear any opposition. 
Three of his brothers speedily fell victims to his bloody per- 
fidy. Yaroslaf, who had been entrusted with the feudal gov 
ernment of Novgorod, being informed of the death of his 
father, of the usurpation of Sviatopolk and of the assassina- 
tion of three of his brothers, raised an army of forty thou- 
sand men and marched upon Kief. Sviatopolk, informed of his 
approach, hastened, with all his troops to meet him. The two 
armies encountered each other upon the banks of the Dnieper 
about one hundred and fifty miles above Kief. The river 
separated them, and neither dared to attempt to cross in the 
presence of the other. Several weeks passed, the two camps 
thus facing each other, without any collision. 

At length Yaroslaf, with the Novgorodians, crossed the 
stream stealthily and silently in a dark night, and fell fiercely 
upon the sleeping camp of Sviatopolk. His troops, thus takeu 



REIGN OF YAKOSLAF. 59 

by surprise, fought for a short time desperately. They were 
however soon cut to pieces or dispersed, aud Sviatopolk, him- 
self, saved his life only by precipitate flight. Yaroslaf, thus sig- 
nally victorious, continued his march, without further opposi- 
tion, to Kief^ and entered the capital in triumph. Sviatopolk 
fled to Poland, secured the cooperation of the Polish king, 
whose daughter he had married, returned with a numerous 
army, defeated his brother in a sanguinary battle, drove him 
back to Novgorod, and again, with flying banners, took pos- 
session of Kief. The path of history now leads us through 
the deepest sloughs of perfidy and crime. Two of the sisters 
of Yaroslaf were found in Kief. One of them had previously 
refused the hand of the king of Poland. The barbarian in 
revenge seized her as his concubine. Sviatopolk, jealous 
of the authority which his father-in-law claimed, and which 
he could enforce by means of. the Polish army, administered 
poison in the food of the troops. A terrible and unknown 
disease broke out in the camp, and thousands perished. The 
wretch even attempted to poison his father-in-law, but the 
crime was suspected, and the Polish king, Boleslas, fled to his 
own realms. 

Sviatopolk was thus again left so helpless as to invite at- 
tack. Yaroslaf with eagerness availed himself of the oppor- 
tunity. Raising a new army, he marched upon Kief, retook 
the city and drove his brother again into exile. The ener- 
getic yet miserable man fled to the banks of the Volga, where 
he formed a large army of the ferocious Petchenegues, excit- 
ing their cupidity with promises of boundless pillage. With 
these wolfish legions, he commenced his march back again 
upon his own country. The terrible encounter took place on 
the banks of the Alta. Russian historians describe the con- 
flict as one of the most fierce in which men have ever en- 
gaged. The two armies precipitated themselves upon each 
other with the utmost fury, breast to breast, swords, javelins 
and clubs clashing against brazen shields. The Novgorod- 



60 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

ians had taken a solemn oath that they would conquer or die 
Three times the combatants from sheer exhaustion ceased the 
stnfe. Three times the deadly combat was renewed with re- 
doubled ardor. The sky was illumined with the iirst rays of 
the morning when the battle commenced. The evening twi- 
light was already darkening the held before the victory was 
decided. The hordes of the wretched Sviatopolk were then 
driven in rabble rout from the field, leaving the ground cov 
ered with the slain. The defeat was so awful that Sviatopolk 
was plunged into utter despair. Half dead with terror, tor- 
tured by remorse, and pursued by the frown of Heaven, he 
fled into the deserts of Bohemia, where he miserably perished, 
an object of universal execration. In the annals of Russia the 
surname of miserable is ever affixed to this infamous prince. 

Yaroslaf, thus crowned by victory, received the undisputed 
title of sovereign of Russia. It was now the year 1020. For 
several years Yaroslaf reigned in prosperity. There^were oc- 
casional risings of barbaric tribes, which, by force of arras, he 
speedily quelled. Much time and treasure were devoted to 
the embellishment of the capital; churches were erected; the 
city was surrounded by brick walls ; institutions of learning 
were encouraged, and, most important of all, the Bible was 
translated into the Russian language. It is recorded that the 
king devoutly read the Scriptures himself, both morning and 
evening, and took great interest in copying the sacred books 
with his own hands. 

The closing years of life this illustrious prince passed in 
repose and in the exercises of piety, while he still continued, 
with unintermitted zeal, to watch over the welfare of the 
state. N^early all the pastors of the churches were Greeks 
from Constantinople, and Yaroslaf, apprehensive that the 
Greeks might acquire too much influence in the empire, made 
great efforts to raise up Russian ecclesiastics, and to place 
them in the most important posts. At length the last hours 
of the monarch arrived, and it was evident that death was 



REIGN OF YAEOSLAF. 61 

near. He assembled his children around his bed» four sons 
and five daughters, and thus affectiugly addressed them : 

" I am about to leave the world. I trust that you, my 
dear children, will not only remember that you are brothers 
and sisters, but that you will cherish for each other the most 
tender affection. Ever bear in mind that discord among you 
will be attended with the most funereal results, and that it 
will be destructive of the prosperity of the state. By peace 
and tranquillity alone can its power be consolidated. 

"Ysiaslaf will be my successor to ascend the throne of Kief. 
Obey him as you have obeyed your father. I give Tcherni- 
gof to Sviatoslaf ; Pereaslavle to Ysevolod ; and Smolensk 
to Yiatcheslaf. I hope that each of you will be satisfied with 
his inheritance. Your oldest brother, in his quality of sov- 
ereign prince, will be your natural judge. He will protect 
the oppressed and punish the guilty." 

On the 19th of February, 1054, Yaroslaf died, in the 
seventy-first year of his age. His subjects followed his re- 
mains in tears to the tomb, in the church of St. Sophia, 
where his marble monument, carved by Grecian artists, is still 
shown. Influenced by a superstition common in those days, 
he caused the bones of Oleg and Yaropolk, the two murdered 
brothers of Ylademer, who had perished in the errors of 
paganism, to be disinterred, baptized, and then consigned to 
Christian burial in the church of Kief. He established the 
first public school in Russia, where three hundred young 
men, sons of the priests and nobles, received instruction in 
all those branches which would prepare tfiem for civil or 
ecclesiastical life. Ambitious of makinof Kief the rival of Con- 
stantinople, he expended large sums in its decoration. Gre- 
cian artists were munificently pMronized, and paintings and 
mosaics of exquisite workmanship added attraction to 
churches reared in the highest style of existing art. He 
even sent to Greece for singers, that the church choirs 
might be instructed in the richest utterances of music. 



62 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

He drew up a code of laws, called Russian Justice, which, 
for that dark age, is a marvelous monument of sagacity, 
comprehensive views and equity. 

The death of Yaroslaf proved an irreparable calamity; 
for his successor was incapable of leading on in the march of 
civilization, and the realm was soon distracted by civil war. 
It is a gloomy jDeriod, of three hundred years, upon which 
we now must enter, while violence, crime, and consequently 
misery, desolated the land. It is worthy of record that 
ISTestor attributes the woes which ensued, to the general foi- 
getfulness of God, and the impiety which commenced the 
reign immediately after the death of Yaroslaf. 

" God is just," writes the historian. " He punishes the 
Russians for their sins. We dare to call ourselves Christians, 
and yet we live like idolaters. Although multitudes throng 
every place of entertainment, although the sound of trumpets 
and harps resounds in our houses, and mountebanks exhibit 
their tricks and dances, the temples of God are empty, sur- 
rendered to solitude and silence." 

Bands of barbarians invaded Russia from the distant re- 
gions of the Caspian Sea, plundering, killing and burning. 
They came suddenly, like the thunder-cloud in a summer's 
day, and as suddenly disappeared where no pursuit could find 
them. Ambitious nobles, descendants of former kings, plied 
all the arts of perfidy and of assassination to get possession 
of different,provinces of the empire, each hoping to make his 
province central and to extend his sway over all the rest of 
Russia. The brothers of Ysiaslaf became embroiled, and drew 
the sword against each other. An insurrection was excited 
in Kief, the populace besieged the palace, and the king saved 
his life only by a precipitate abandonment of his capital. The 
military mob pillaged the palace and proclaimed their chief- 
tain, Vseslaf, king. 

Ysiaslaf fled to Poland. The Polish king, Boleslas II., 
who was a grandson of Vlademer, and who had married a 



REIGN OF YSIASLAF. 63 

Russian princess, received the fugitive king with the utmost 
kindness. With a strong Polish army, accompanied by the 
King of Poland,* Ysiaslaf returned to Kief, to recover his 
capital by the sword. The insurgent chief who had usurped 
the throne, in cowardly terror fled. Ysiaslaf entered the city 
with the stern strides of a conqueror and wreaked horrible 
vengeance upon the inhabitants, making but little discrimina- 
tion betw^een the innocent and the guilty. Seventy were put 
to death. A large number had their eyes plucked out ; and 
for a long time the city resounded with the cries of the vic- 
tims, suffering under all kinds of punishments from the hands 
of this implacable monarch. Thus the citizens w^ere speedily 
brought into abject submission. The Polish king, with his 
army, remained a long time at Kief, luxuriating in every in- 
dulgence at the expense of the inliabitants. He then re- 
turned to his own country laden with riches. 

Ysiaslaf re-ascended the throne, having been absent ten 
months. Disturbances of a similar character agitated the 
provinces w^hich were under the government of the brothers 
of Ysiaslaf, and w'hich had assumed the authority and dignity 
of independent kingdoms. Thus all Russia was but an arena 
of war, a volcanic crater of flame and blood. Three years of 
conflict and woe passed away, when two of the brothers of 
Ysiaslaf united their armies and marched against him ; and 
again he was compelled to seek a refuge in Poland. He car- 
ried with him immense treasure, hoping thus again to engage 
the services of the Polish army. But Boleslas infamously 
robbed him of his treasure, and then, to use an expression of 
Nestor, " showed hbn the way out of his kingdom.'^'* 

The woe*stricken exile fled to Germany, and entreated the 
interposition of the emperor, Henry lY., promising to reward 
liim with immense treasure, and to hold the crown of Russia 
as tributary to the German empire. The emperor was ex- 
cited by the alluring offer, and sent embassadors to Sviatoslaf, 
now enthroned at Kief, ostensibly to propose reconciliation, 



64 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

but in reality to ascertain what the probability was of success 
in a warlike expedition to so remote a kingdonri. The embas- 
sadors returned with a very discouraging report. 

The banished prince thus disappointed, turned his steps to 
Rome, and implored the aid of Gregory YIL, that renowned 
pontiff, who was ambitious of universal sovereignty, and who 
had assumed the title of King of kings. Ysiaslaf, in his humil- 
iation, was ready to renounce his fidelity to the Greek church, 
and also the dignity of an independent prince. He promised, 
in consideraiton of the support of the pope, to recognize not 
only the spiritual power of Rome, but also the temporal au- 
thority of the pontiff. He also entered bitter complaints 
against the Khig of Poland. Ysiaslaf did not visit Rome in 
person, but sent his son to confer with the pope. Gregory, 
rejoiced to acquire spiritual dominion over Russia, received 
the application in the most friendly manner, and sent embas- 
sadors to the fugitive prince with the following letter: 

" Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to 
Ysiaslaf, prince of the Russians, safety, health and the apos- 
tolic benediction. 

" Your son, after having visited the sacred places at Rome, 
has humbly implored that he might be reestablished in his 
possessions by the authority of Saint Peter, and has given his 
solemn vow to be faithful to the chief of the apostles. We 
have consented to grant his request, which we understand is 
in accordance with your wishes ; and we, in the name of the 
chief of the apostles, confer upon him the government of the 
Russian kino^dom. 

" We pray that Saint Peter may preserve your health, that 
he will protect your reign and your estates, even to the end 
of your life, and that you may then enjoy a day of eternal 
gloiy. 

" Wishing also to give a proof of our desire to be useful 
to you hereafter, we have charged our embassadors, one of 
whom is your faithful friend, to treat with you verbally upon 



EEIGN OF YSIASLAF. 65 

all those subjects alluded to in your communication to us. 
Receive them with kindness as the embassadors of Saint Peter, 
and receive without restriction all the propositions they may 
make in our name. 

*' May God, the all-powerful, illumine your heart with 
divine light and with temporal blessings, and conduct you to 
eternal glory. Given at Rome the 15th of May, in the year 
1075." 

Thus adroitly the pope assumed the sovereignty of Russia, 
and the right, and the power, by the mere utterance of a 
word, to confer it upon whom he would. The all-grasping 
pontiff thus annexed Russia to the domains of Saint Peter. 
Another short letter Gregory wrote to the King of Poland. 
It was as follows : 

" In appropriating to yourself illegally the treasures of the 
Russian prince, you have violated the Christian virtues. I 
conjure you, in the name of God, to restore to him all the 
property of which you and your subjects have deprived him; 
for robbers can never enter the kingdom of heaven unless 
they first restore the plunder they have taken." 

Fortunately for the fugitive prince, his usurping brother 
Sviatoslaf just at this time died, in consequence of a severe 
surgical operation. The Polish king appears to have refunded 
the treasure of which he had robbed the exiled monarch, and 
Ysiaslaf, hiring an army of Polish mercenaries, returned a 
second time in triumph to his capital. It does not appear that 
he subsequently paid any regard to the interposition of the 
pope. 

We have now but a long succession of consptracies, insur- 
rections and battles. In one of these civil conflicts, Ysiaslaf, 
at the head of a formidable force, met another powerful army, 
but a few leagues from Kief. In the hottest hour of the battle 
a reckless cavalier, in the hostile ranks, perceiving Ysiaslaf in 
the midst of his infantry, precipitated himself on him, pierced 
him with his lance and threw him dead upon the ground. Ilis 



66 THEEMFIBE OF BUSSIA. 

body was conveyed in a canoe to Kief, and buried with much 
funeral pomp in the church of Notre Dame, by the side of the 
beautiful monument which had been erected to the memory 
of Vlademer. 

Ysiaslaf expunged from the Russian code of laws the death 
penalty, and substituted, in its stead, heavy fines. The Rus- 
sian historians, however, record that it is impossible to decide 
whether this measure was the dictate of humanity, or if he 
wished in this way to replenish his treasury. 

Ysevolod succeeded to the throne of his brother Ysiaslaf, 
in the year 1078. The children of Ysiaslaf had provinces as- 
signed them in appanage. Ysevolod was a lover of peace, and 
yet devastation and carnage were spread everywhere before 
his eyes. Every province in the empire was torn by civil 
strife. Hundreds of nobles and princes were mflamed with 
the ambition for supremacy, and with the sword alone could 
the path be cut to renown. The wages offered the soldiers, 
on all sides, was pillage. Cities were everywhere sacked and 
burned, and the realm was crimsoned with blood. Civil w^ar 
is necessarily followed by the woes of famine, which woes 
are ever followed by the pestilence. The plague swept the 
kingdom with terrific violence, and whole provinces were de- 
populated. In the city of Kief alone, seven thousand per- 
ished in the course of ten weeks. Universal terror, and su- 
perstitious fear spread through the nation. An earthquake 
indicated that the world itself was trembling in alarm; an 
enormous serpent was reported to have been seen falling from 
heaven ; invisible and malignant spirits were riding by day 
and by night through the streets of the cities, wounding the 
citizens with blows which, though unseen, were heavy and 
murderous, and by which blows many were slain. All hearts 
sank in gloom and fear. Barbarian hordes ravaged both 
banks c f the Dnieper, committing towns and villages to the 
flames, and killing such of the inhabitants as they did not 
wish to carry away as captives. 



BEIGN OF VSEVOLOD. 6l 

Vsevolod, an amiable man of but very little force of char- 
acter, was crushed by the calamities which were overwhelm- 
ing his country. Not an hour of tranquillity could he enjoy. 
It was the ambition of his nephews, ambitious, energetic, un- 
principled princes, struggling for the supremacy, which was 
mainly the cause of all these disastera. 



CHAPTER IV. 

YEARS OF WAR AND TVOE. 
Feom 1092 TO 116T. 

CHAnAcnm of Vsevolod. — Succession of Sviatopolk. — His DiscoMnxtrKE." — Deplob- 
ABLE Condition OF Kussia. — Deatu of Sviatopolk. — His Chakacter. — Accession 
OF Monomaque, — CuEious Festival at Kief. — Energy of Monomaque. — Alarm op 
the Emperok at Constantinople. — Horrors of War. — Death of Monomaque. — 
His Kemaekable Character. — Pious Letter to his Children. — Accession ok 
MsTiSLAF.— His Shortbut Stormy Eeign. — Struggles for the Thronf- — Final 
Victory ok Ysiaslaf. — Moscow in the Province of Souzdal. — Death of Ysias- 
LAF. — Wonderful Career of Eostislaf. — Kising Power of Moscow. — Geoegib- 
vitch, Pbince of Moscow. 

VSEYOLOD Las the reputation of having been a man of 
piety. But he was quite destitute of that force of char- 
acter which one required to hold the helm in such stormy 
times. He was a man of great humanity and of unblemished 
morals. The woes which desolated his realms, and which he 
was utterly unable to avert, crushed his spirit and hastened 
his death. Perceiving that his dying hour was at hand, he 
sent for his two sons, Vlademer and Rostislaf, and the soitow- 
ing old man breathed his last in their arms. 

Vsevolod was the favorite son of Yaroslaf the Great, 
and his father, with his dying breath, had expressed the wish 
that Vsevolod, when death should come to him, might be 
placed in the tomb by his side. These affectionate wishes of 
the dying father were gratified, and the remains of Vsevolod 
were deposited, with the most imposing ceremonies of those 
days, in the church of Saint Sophia, by the side of those of 
his father. The people, forgetting his weakness and remem- 
bering only his amiability, wept at his burial. 



TEAKS OF WAR AND WOE. 69 

Vlademer, the eldest son of Vsevolod, with great magna- 
nimity surrendered the crown to his cousin Sviatopolk, saying, 

" His father was older than mine, and reigned at Kief be- 
fore my father. I wish to avoid dissension and the horrors of 
civil war." 

He then proclaimed Sviatopolk sovereign of Russia. The 
new sovereign had been feudal lord of the province of Nov- 
gorod ; he, however, soon left his northern capital to take up 
his residence in the more imperial palaces of Kief. But dis- 
aster seemed to be the doom of Russia, and the sounds of re- 
joicing which attended his accession to the throne had hardly 
died away ere a new scene of woe burst upon the devoted land. 

The young king was rash and headstrong. He provoked 
the ire of one of the strong neighboring provinces, which was 
under the sway of an energetic feudal prince, ostensibly a vassal 
of the crown, but who, in his pride and power, arrogated inde- 
pendence. The banners of a hostile army were soon approach- 
ing Kief. Sviatopolk marched heroically to meet them. A 
battle was fought, in which he and his army were awfully 
defeated. Thousands were driven by the conquerors into a 
stream, swollen by the rains, where they miserably perished. 
The fugitives, led by Sviatopolk, in dismay Hed back to Kief 
and took refuge behind the walls of the city. The enemy 
pressed on, ravaging, with the most cruel desolation, the whole 
region around Kief, and in a second battle conquered the king 
and drove him out of his realms. The whole of southern 
Russia was abandoned to barbaric destruction. Nestor gives 
a graphic sketch of the misery which prevailed : 

" One saw everywhere," he writes, " villages in flames ; 
churches, houses, granaries were reduced to heaps of ashes ; 
and the unfortunate citizens were either expiring beneath the 
blows of their enemies, or were awaiting death with terror. 
Prisoners, half naked, were dragged in chains to the most 
distant and savage regions. As they toiled along, they said, 
weeping, one to another, ''J am from such a village^ cuid J 



70 THEEMPIKEOFEUSSIA. 

from such a village? IsTo horses or cattle were to be seen 
upon our plains. The fields were abandoned to weeds, and 
ferocious beasts ranged the places but recently occupied by 
Christians." 

The whole reign of Sviatopolk, which continued until the 
year 1113, was one continued storm of war. It would only 
weary the reader to endeavor to disentangle the labyrinth of 
confusion, and to describe the ebbings and floodings of battle. 
Everyman's hand was against his neighbor; and friends to- 
day were foes to-morrow. Sviatopolk himself was one of the 
most imperfect of men. He was perfidious, ungrateful and 
suspicious ; haughty in prosperity, mean and cringing in ad- 
versity. His religion was the inspiration of superstition and 
cowardice, not of intelligence and love. Whenever he em- 
barked upon any important expedition, he took an ecclesiastic 
to the tomb of Saint Theodosius, there to implore the bless- 
ing of Heaven. If successful in the enterprise, he returned to 
the tomb to give thanks. This was the beginning and the end 
of his piety. Without any scruple he violated the most sacred 
laws of morality. The marriage vow was entirely disregarded, 
and he was ever ready to commit any crime which would 
afford gratification to his passions, or which would advance 
his interests. 

The death of Sviatopolk occurred in a season of general 
anarchy, and it was uncertain who would seize the throne. 
The citizens of Kief met in solemn and anxious assembly, 
and offered the crown to an illustrious noble, Monomaque, a 
brother of Sviatopolk, and a man who had acquired renown 
in many enterprises of most desperate daring. In truth it 
required energy and courage of no ordinary character for a 
man at that time to accept the crown. Innumerable assailants 
would immediately fall upon him, putting to the most immi- 
nent peril not only the crown, but the head which wore it. 
By the Russian custom of descent, the crown incontestably 
belonged to the oldest son of Sviatoslaf, and Monomaque, out 



TEAKS OP WAR AND WOE. VI 

of regard to bis rights, declined the proffered gift. This 
refusal was accompanied by the most melancholy results. A 
terrible tumult broke out in the city. There was no arm of 
law sufficiently powerful to restrain the mob, and anarchy, 
with all its desolation, reigned for a time triumphant. A dep- 
utation of the most influential citizens of Kief was immedi- 
ately sent to Monomaque, with the most earnest entreat^ that 
he would hasten to rescue them and their city from the impend- 
ing ruin. The heroic prince could not turn a deaf ear to this 
appeal. He hastened to the city, where his presence, com- 
bined with the knowledge which all had of his energy and 
courage, at once appeased the tumult. He ascended the 
throne, greeted by the acclamations of the whole city. No 
opposition ventured to manifest itself, and Monomaque was 
soon in the undisputed possession of power. 

Nothing can give one a more vivid idea of the state of the 
times than the festivals appointed in honor of the new reign 
as described by the ancient annalists. The bones of two 
saints were transferred from one church to another in the 
city. A magnificent coffin of silver, embellished with gold, pre- 
cious stones, and has reliefs^ so exquisitely carved as to excite 
the admiration even of the Grecian artists, contained the sacred 
relics, and excited the wonder and veneration of the whole 
multitude. The imposing ceremony drew to Kief the princes, 
the clergy, the lords, the w^arriors, even, from the most dis- 
tant parts of the empire. The gates of the city and the streets 
were encumbered with such multitudes that, in order to open 
a passage for the clergy with the sarcophagus, the monarch 
caused cloths, garments, precious furs and pieces of silver to 
be scattered to draw away the throng. A luxurious feast was 
given to the princes, and, for three days, all the poor of the 
city were entertained at the expense of the public treasure. 

Monomaque now fitted out sundry expeditions under his 
enterprising son to extend the territories of Russia and to 
bring tumultuous tribes and nations into subjection and 



72 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

order. His son Mstislaf was sent into the country of the 
Tchoudes, now Livonia, on the shores of the Baltic. He 
overran the territory, seized the capital and established order. 
His son Vsevolod, who was stationed at Novgorod, made an 
expedition into Finland. His army experienced inconceivable 
sufferings in that cold, inhospitable clime. Still they over- 
awed the inhabitants and secured tranquillity. Another son, 
Georges, marched to the Volga, embarked his army in a fleet 
of barges, and floated along the stream to eastern Bulgaria, 
conquered an army raised to oppose him, and returned to his 
principality laden with booty. Another son, Yaropolk, as- 
sailed the tumultuous tribes upon the Don. Brilliant success 
accompanied his enterprise. Among his captives he found 
one maiden of such rare beauty that he made her his wife. 
At the same time the kingdom of Russia was invaded by bar- 
barous hordes from the shores of the Caspian. Monomaque 
himself headed an army and assailed the invaders with such 
impetuosity that they were driven, with much loss, back again 
to their wilds. 

The military renown Monomaque thus attained made hiss 
name a terror even to the most distant tribes, and, for a time, 
held in awe those turbulent spirits who had been filling the 
world with violence. Elated by his conquests, Monomaque 
fitted out an expedition to Greece. A large army descended 
the Dnieper took possession of Thrace, and threatened Adri- 
anople. The emperor, in great alarm, sent embassadors to 
Monomaque with the most precious presents. There was a 
cornelian exquisitely cut and set, a golden chain and necklace, 
a crown of gold, and, most precious of all, a crucifix made of 
wood of the true cross ! The metropolitan bishop of Ephe- 
sus, who was sent with these presents, was authorized, in the 
name of the church and of the empire, to place the crown 
upon the brow of Monomaque in gorgeous coronation in the 
cathedral church of Kief, and to proclaim Monomaque Em- 
peror of Russia. This crown, called the golden bonnet of 



YEARS OF WAK AN"D WOE. 73 

Monomaquc^ is still preserved in the Museum of Antiquities 
at Moscow. 

These were dark and awful days. Horrible as war now 
is, it was then attended with woes now unknown. Gleb, 
prince of Minsk, with a ferocious band, attacked the city of 
Sloutsk ; after a terrible scene of carnage, in which most of 
those capable of bearing arms were slain, the city was burned 
to ashes, and all the survivors, men, women and children, 
were driven off as captives to the banks of the Dwina, where 
they were incorporated with the tribe of their savage con- 
queror. In revenge, Monomaque sent his son Yaropolk to 
Droutsk, one of the cities of Gleb. No pen can depict the 
horrors of the assault. After a few hours of dismay, shriek- 
ings and blood, the city was in ashes, and the wretched vic- 
tims of man's pride and revenge were conducted to the 
vicinity of Kief, where they reared their huts, and in widow- 
hood, orphanage and penury, commenced life anew. Gleb 
himself in this foray was taken prisoner, conducted to Kief, 
and detained there a captive until he died. 

Monomaque reigned thirteen years, during which time he 
was incessantly engaged in wars with the audacious nobles of 
the provinces who refused to recognize his supremacy, and 
many of whom were equal to him in power. He died May 
19, 1126, in the seventy-third year of his age, renowned, say 
the ancient annalists, for the splendor of his victories and 
the purity of his morals. He was fully conscious of the 
approach of death, and seems to have been sustained, in that 
trying hour, by the consolations of religion. He lived in an 
age of darkness and of tumult ; but he was a man of prayer, 
and, according to the light he had, he walked humbly with 
God. Commending his soul to the Saviour he fell asleep. It 
is recorded that he was a man of such lively emotions that his 
voice often trembled, and his eyes were filled with tears as he 
implored God's blessing upon his distracted country. He 
wrote, just before his death, a long letter to his children, con- 



^4 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

ceived in the most lovely spirit of piety. We have space but 
for a few extracts from these Christian counsels of a dying 
father. The whole letter, written on parchment, is still pre^ 
served in the archives of the monarchy. 

"The foundation of all virtue," he wrote, "is the fear of 
God and the love of man. O my dear children, praise God 
and love your fellow-men. It is not fasting, it is not solitude, 
it is not a monastic life which will secure for you the divine 
approval— it is doing good to your fellow-creatures alone. 
Never forget the poor. Take care of them, and ever remem- 
ber that your wealth comes from God, and that it is only 
intrusted to you for a short time. Do not hoard up your 
riches ; that is contrary to the precepts of the Saviour. Be 
a father to the orphans, the protectors of widows, and never 
permit the powerful to oppress the weak. Never take the 
name of God in vain, and never violate your oath. Do not 
envy the triumph of the wicked, or the success of the im- 
pious; but abstain from everything that is wrong. Banish 
from your hearts all the suggestions of pride, and remember 
that we are all perishable— to-day full of life, to-morrow in 
the tomb. Regard with horror, falsehood, intemperance and 
impurity— vices equally dangerous to the body and to the 
soul. Treat aged men with the same respect with which you 
would treat your parents, and love all men as your brothers. 
"When you make a journey in your provinces, do not 
suffer the members of your suite to inflict the least injury 
upon the inhabitants. Treat with particular respect strangers, 
of whatever quality, and if you can not confer upon them 
favors, treat them with a spirit of benevolence, since, upon 
the manner with whicli they are treated, depends the evil or 
good report which they will take back with them to their 
own land. Salute every one whom you meet. Love your 
wives, but do not permit them to govern you. When you 
liave learned any thing useful, endeavor to imprint it upon 
your memory, and be always seeking to acquire information. 



Y E A R S O F W A R A X D W O E . . 75 

My father spoke five languages, a fact which excited the ad- 
miration of strangers. 

" Guard against idleness, which is the mother of all vices. 
Man ought always to be occupied. When you are traveling 
on horseback, instead of allowing your mind to wander upon 
vain thoughts, recite your prayers, or, at least, repeat the 
shortest and best of them all : * (9A, Lord^ have tnercy upon 
us.^ Never retire at night without falling upon your knees 
betbre God in prayer, and never let the sun find you in your 
bed. Always go to church at an early hour in the morning 
to offer to God the homage of your first and freshest thoughts. 
This was the custom of my father and of all the pious people 
who surrounded him. With the first rays of the sun they 
praised the Lord, and exclaimed, with fervor, ' Condescend, 
O Lord, with thy divine light to illumine my soul.' " 

The faults of Monomaque were those of his age, no?i vitia 
hominis^ sed vitia sceculi y but his virtues were truly Chris- 
tian, and it can hardly be doubted that, as his earthly crown 
dropped from his brow, he leceived a brighter crown in hea- 
ven. The devastations of the barbarians in that day were so 
awful, burning cities and churches, and massacring women 
and children, that they were regarded as enemies of the hu- 
man race, and were pursued ^vith exterminating vengeance. 

Monomaque left several children and a third wife. One 
of his wives, Gyda, was a daughter of Harold, King of En- 
gland. His oldest son, Mstislaf, succeeded to the crown. 
His brothers received, as their inheritance, the government 
of extensive provinces. The new monarch, inheriting the en- 
ergies and the virtues of his illustrious sire, had long been re- 
nowned. The barbarians, east of the Volga, as soon as they 
heard of the death of Monomaque, thought that Russia would 
tall an easy prey to their arms. In immense numbers they 
crossed the river, spreading far and wide the most awful dev- 
astation. But Mstislaf fell upon them with such impetuosity 
that they were routed witli great slaughter and driven back 



75 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

to their wilds. Their chastisement was so severe that, for a 
long time, they were intimidated from any further incursions. 
With wonderful energy, Mstislaf attacked many of the tribu- 
tary nations, who had claimed a sort of independence, and 
who were ever rising in insurrection. He speedily brought 
them into subjection to his sway, and placed over them rulers 
devoted to his interests. In the dead of winter an expedition 
was marched against the Tchoudes, who inhabited the south- 
ern shores of the bay of Finland. The men were put to death, 
the cities and villages burned ; the women and children were 
brought away as captives and incorporated with the Russian 

people. 

Mstislaf reigned but about four years, when he suddenly 
died in the sixtieth year of his age. His whole reign was an 
incessant warfare with insurgent chiefs and barbarian invaders. 
There is an awful record, at this time, of the scourge of famine 
added to the miseries of war. All the northern provinces suf- 
fered terribly from this frown of God. Immense quantities of 
snow covered the ground even to the month of May. The 
snow then melted suddenly with heavy rains, deluging the 
fields with water, which slowly retired, converting the coun- 
try into a wide-spread marsh. It was very late before any 
seed could be sown. The grain had but just begun to sprout 
when myriads of locusts appeared, devouring every green 
thing. A heavy frost early in the autumn destroyed the few 
fieldl the locusts had spared, and then commenced the horrors 
of a universal famine. Men, women and children, wasted and 
haggard, wandered over the fields seeking green leaves and 
root"^, and dropped dead in their wanderings. The fields and 
the public places were covered with putrelying corpses which 
the living had not strength to bury. A fetid miasma, ascend- 
ing from°this cause, added pestilence to famine, and woes en- 
sued too awful ,to be described. 

Immediately after the death of Mstislaf, the inhabitants of 
Kief assembled and invited his brother Vladimirovitch to as- 



TEARS OF WAR AND WOE. 77 

sume the crown. This prince then resided at ]!^ovgorod, 
which city he at once left for the capital. He proved to be a 
feeble prince, and the lords of the remote principalities, assum- 
ing independence, bade defiance to his authority. There was 
no longer any central power, and Russia, instead of being a 
united kingdom, became a conglomeration of antagonistic 
states ; every feudal lord marshaling his serfs in M^arfare 
against his neighbor. In the midst of this state of universal 
anaichy, caused by the weakness of a virtuous prince who had 
not sufficient energy to reign, Yladimirovitch died in 1139. 

The death of the king was a signal for a general outbreak 
— a multitude of princes rushing to seize the crown. Viat- 
cheslaf, prince of a large province called Pereiaslavle, was the 
first to reach Kief with his army. The inhabitants of the city, 
to avoid the horrors of war, marched in procession to meet 
him, and conducted him in triumph to the throne. Yiatcheslaf 
had hardly grasped the scepter and stationed his army within 
the walls, when from the steeples of the city the banners of 
another advancing host were seen gleaming in the distance, 
and soon the tramp of their horsemen, and the defiant tones 
of the trumpet were heard, as another and far more mighty 
host encircled the city. This new army was led by Vsevolod, 
prince of a province called Vouychegorod. Viatcheslaf, con- 
vinced of the impossibility of resisting such a power as Vse- 
volod had brought against Kief, immediately consented to 
retire, and to surrender the throne to his more powerful rival. 
Vsevolod entered the city in triumph and established himself 
firmly in power. 

There is nothing of interest to be recorded during his 
reign of seven years, save that Russia was swept by incessant 
billows of flame and blood. The princes of the provinces were 
ever rising against his authority. Combinations were formed 
to dethrone the king, and the king formed combinations to 
crush his enemies. The Hungarians, the Swedes, the Danes, 
the Poles, all made war against this energetic prince; but 



78 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

with an iron hand he smote them down. Toil and care soon 
exhausted his frame, and he was prostrate on his dying bed. 
Bequeathing his throne to his brother Igor, he died, leaving 
behind him the reputation of having been one of the most 
energetic of the kings of this blood-deluged land. 

Igor was fully conscious of the perils he thus inherited. 
He was very unpopular with the inhabitants of Kief, and loud 
murmurs greeted his accession to power. A conspiracy was 
formed among the most influential inhabitants of Kief, and a 
secret embassage w^as sent to the grand prince, Ysiaslaf, a 
descendant of Monomaque, inviting him to come, and wdtli 
their aid, take possession of the throne. The prince attended 
the summons w'ith alacrity, and marched with a powerful army 
to Kief. Igor was vanquished in a sanguinary battle, taken 
captive, imprisoned in a convent, and Ysiaslaf became the 
nominal monarch of Russia. 

Sviatoslaf, the brother of Igor, overwhelmed with anguish 
in view of his brother's fall and captivity, traversed the ex- 
panse of Russia to enlist the sympathies of the distant princes, 
to march for the rescue of the captive. He was quite success- 
ful. An allied army was soon raised, and, under determined 
leaders, was on the march for Kief. The king, Ysiaslaf, with 
his troops, advanced to meet them. In the meantime Igor, 
crushed by misfortune, and hopeless of deliverance, sought 
solace for his woes in religion. " For a long time," said he, 
" I have desired to consecrate my heart to God. Even in the 
height of prosperity this was my strongest wish. What can 
be more pi'oper for me now that I am at the very gates of 
the tomb ?" For eight days he laid in his cell, expecting 
every moment to breathe his last. He then, reviving a little, 
received the tonsure from the hands of the bishop, and re- 
nouncing the world, and all its cares and ambitions, devoted 
himself to the prayers and devotions of the monk. 

The king pressed Sviatoslaf with superior forces, con- 
qucred liim in several battles, and drove him, a fugitive, into 



YEARS OF WAR AND WOE. Y9 

dense forests, and into distant wilds. Sviatoslaf, like his 
brother, weary of the storms of life, also sought the solace 
w^hich religion affords to the weary and the heart-stricken. 
Pursued by his relentless foe, he came to a little village called 
Moscow, far back in the interior. This is the first intimation 
history gives of this now renowned capital of the most exten- 
sive monarchy upon the globe. A prince named Georges 
reigned here, over the extensive province then called Souz- 
dal, who received the fugitive with heartfelt sympathy. Aided 
by Georges and several of the surrounding princes, another 
army was raised, and Sviatoslaf commenced a triumphal 
march, sweeping all opposition before him, until he arrived a 
conqueror before the walls of I^ovgorod. 

The people of Kief, enraged by this success of the foe of 
their popular king, rose in a general tumult, burst into a con- 
vent where Igor was found at his devotions, tied a rope about 
his neck, and dragged him, a mutilated corpse, through the 
streets. 

The king, Ysiaslaf, called for a levy en 7nasse, of the in- 
habitants of Kief, summoned distant feudal barons with their 
armies to his banner, and marched impetuously to meet the 
conquering foe. Fierce battles ensued, in which Sviatoslaf 
was repeatedly vanquished, and retreated to Souzdal again to 
appeal to Georges for aid. Ysiaslaf summoned the Novgo- 
rodians before him, and in the following energetic terras ad- 
dressed them : 

" My brethren," said he, " Georges, the prince of Souzdal, 
has insulted IS'ovgorod. I haA^e left the capital of Russia to 
defend you. Do you wish to prosecute the war ? The 
sword is in my hands. Do you desire peace ? I will open 
negotiations." 

" War, war," the multitude shouted. " You are our 
monarch, and we will all follow you, from the youngest to 
the oldest." 

A vast army was immediately assembled on the shores of 



80 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

the lake of Ilmen, near the city of Novgorod, which com- 
menced its march of three hundred miles, to the remote 
realms of Souzdal. Georges was miprepared to meet them. 
He fled, surrendering his country to be ravaged by the foe. 
His cities and villages were burned, and seven thousand of his 
subjects were carried captive to Kief. But Georges was not a 
man to bear such a calamity meekly. He speedily succeeded 
ill forming an alliance with the barbarian nations around him, 
and burning with rage, followed the army of the letiring 
foe. He overtook them near the city of Perias^avle. It 
was the evening of the 23d of August. The unclouded 
sun was just sinking at the close of a sultry day, and 
the vesper chants were floating through the temples of the 
city. The storm of war burst as suddenly as the thunder 
peals of an autumnal tempest. The result was most awful 
and fatal to the king. His troops were dispersed and cut to 
pieces. Ysiaslaf himself with difficulty escaped and reached 
the ramparts of Kief. The terrified inhabitants entreated 
him not to remain, as his presence would only expose the city 
to the horror of being taken by storm, 

" Our fathers, our brothers, our sons," they said, " are 
dead upon the field of battle, or are in chains. We have no 
arms. Generous prince, do not expose the capital of Russia 
to pillage. Flee for a time to your remote principalities, 
there to gather a new army. You know that we will never 
rest contented under the government of Georges. We will 
rise in revolt against him, as soon as v/e shall see your stand- 
ards approaching." 

Ysiaslaf fled, first to Smolensk, some three hundred 
miles distant, and thence traversed his principalities seeking 
aid. Georges entered Kief in triumph. Calling his warriors 
around him, he assigned to them the provinces which he had 
wrested from the feudal lords of the king. 

Hungary, Bohemia and Poland then consisted of barbaric 
peoples just emerging into national existence. The King of 



YEARS OF WAR AND WOE. 81 

Hungary had married Enphrosine, tlie youngest sister of 
Ysiaslaf. He immediately sent to his brother-in-law ten 
thousand cavaliers. The Kings of Bohemia and of Poland 
also entered into an alliance with the exiled prince, and in 
person led the armies which they contributed to his aid. A 
war of desperation ensued. It was as a conflict between the 
tiger and the lion. 

The annals of those dark days contained but a weary 
recital of deeds of violence, blood and woe, which for ten 
years desolated the land. All Russia was roused. Every 
feudal lord was leading his vassals to the field. There were 
combinations and counter-combinations innumerable. Cities 
were taken and retaken ; to-day, the banners of Ysiaslaf float 
upon the battlements of Kief; to-morrow, those banners are 
hewn down and the standards of Georges are unfurled to the 
breeze. ISTow, we see Ysiaslaf a fugitive, hopeless, in despair. 
Again, the rolling wheel of fortune raises him from his de- 
pression, and, with the strides of a conqueror, he pursues his 
foe, in his turn vanquished and woe-stricken. But 

" The pomp of heraldry, the pride of power, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Alike await the inevitable hour ; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

Death, which Ysiaslaf had braved in a hundred battles, ap- 
proached him by the slow but resistless march of disease. For 
a few days the monarch tossed in fevered restlessness on his 
bed at Kief, and then, from his life of incessant storms on 
earth, his spirit ascended to the God who gave it. Georges 
was, at that time, in the lowest state of humiliation. His 
armies had all perished, and he was wandering in exile, seek- 
ing new forces with which to renew the strife. 

Rostislaf, grand prince of Novgorod, succeeded to the 
throne. But Georges, animated by the death of Ysiaslaf, soon 
found enthusiastic adventurers rallying around his banners. 

4* 



82 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

He marched vigorously to Kief, drove Rostislaf from the cap- 
ital and seized the scepter. But there was no lull in the tem- 
l^est of human ambition. Georges had attained the throne 
by the energies of his sword, and, acting upon the principle 
that " to the victors belong the spoils," he had driven from 
their castles all the lords who had been supporters of the past 
administration. He had conferred their mansions and their 
territories upon his followers. Human nature has not mate- 
rially changed. Those in office w^ere fighting to retain their 
honors and emoluments. Those out of office were struggling 
to attain the posts which brought wealth and renown. The 
progress of civilization has, in our country, transferred this 
fierce battle from the field to the ballot-box. It is, indeed, a 
glorious change. The battle can be fought thus just as effiec- 
tually, and infinitely more humanely. It has required the mis- 
ery of nearly six thousand years to teach, even a few millions 
of mankind, that the ballot-box is a better instrument for po- 
litical conflicts than the cartridge-box. 

Armies were gathering in all directions to march upon 
Georges. He was now an old man, weary of war, and endeav- 
ored to bribe his foes to peace. He was, however, unsuccess- 
ful, and found it to be necessary again to lead his armies into 
the field. It was the 20th of March, 1157, when Georges, 
entering Kief in triumph, ascended the throne. On the 1st 
of May he dined with some of his lords. Immediately after 
dinner he was taken sick, and, after languishing a fortnight 
m ever-increasing debility, on the 15th he died. 

The inhabitants of Kief, regarding him as an usurper, 
rejoiced at his death, and immediately sent an embassage to 
Davidovitch, prince of Tchernigof, a province about one hun- 
dred and fifty miles north of Kief, inviting him to hasten to 
the capital and seize the scepter of Russia. 

Kief, and all occidental Russia, thus ravaged by intermin- 
able \vars, desolated by famine and by flame, was rapidly on 
the decline, and was fast lapsing into barbarism, Davidovitch 



J 



TEARS OF WAR AND WOE. 83 

had hardly ascended the throne ere he was driven from it by 
Rostislaf, whom Georges had dethroned. But the remote 
province of Souzdal, of which Moscow was the capital, situated 
some seven hundred miles north-east of Kief, was now emerg- 
ing from barbaric darkness into wealth and civilization. The 
missionaries of Christ had penetrated those remote realms. 
Churches were reared, the gospel was ^^reached, peace reigned, 
industry was encouraged, and, under their influence, Moscow 
was attaining that supremacy which subsequently made it the 
heart of the Russian empire. 

The inhabitants of Kief received Rostislaf with demonstra- 
tions of joy, as they received every prince whom the fortunes 
of war imposed upon them, hoping that each one would se- 
cure for their unhappy city the blessings of tranquillity. Da- 
vidovitch fled to Moldavia. There was then in Moldavia, be- 
tween the rivers Pruth and Sereth, a piratic city called Ber- 
lad. It was the resort of vagabonds of all nations and creeds, 
who pillaged the shores of the Black S.ea and plundered the 
boats ascending and descending the Danube and the Dnieper. 
These brigands, enriched by plunder and strengthened by ac- 
cessions of desperadoes from every nation and every tribe, had 
bidden defiance both to the grand princes of Russia and the 
powers of the empire. 

Eagerly these robber hordes engaged as auxiliaries of 
Davidovitch. In a tumultuous band they commenced their 
march to Kief. They were, however, repulsed by the ener- 
getic Rostislaf, and Davidovitch, with difficulty escaping from 
the sanguinary field, fled to Moscow and implored the aid of 
ils independent prince, Georgievitch. The prince listened 
wdth interest to his representations, and, following the exam- 
ple of the more illustrious nations of modern times, thought 
it a good opportunity to enlarge his territories. 

The city of Novgorod, capital of the extensive and power- 
ful province of the same name, was some seven hundred miles 
north of Kief. It was not more than half that distance west 



84 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

of Moscow. The inhabitants were weary of anarchy and 
blood, and anxious to throw themselves into the arms of any 
prince wlio could secure for them tranquillity. The fruit was 
ripe and was ready to drop into the hands of Georgievitch. 
He sent word to the Novgorodians that he had decided to 
take their country under his protection — that he had no wish 
for wai', but that if they manifested any resistance, he should 
subdue them by force of arms. The ISTovgorodians received 
the message with delight, rose in insurrection, and seized 
their prince, who was the oldest son of Rostislaf, imprisoned 
nim, his wife and children, in a convent, and with tumultu- 
ous joy received as their prince the nephew of Georgievitch. 
Rostislaf was so powerless that he made no attempt to avenge 
this insult. Davidovitch made one more desperate effort to 
obtain the throne. But he fell upon the field of battle, his 
head being cleft with a saber stroke. 



CHAPTER V. 

MSTISLAF AND ANDRi^. 
From 1167 to 1212. 

Ckntealtzation of Powee at Kief. — Deatu of Eostislaf. — His KELiGiorrs Chaeao- 
TER. — Mstislaf Ybiaslavitcu Ascends the Tukoxe. — Peoclamation of the King. 
— Its Effect. — Plans of Andke. — Scenes at Kief. — Ketuen and Death of Mstis- 
T.AF. — Wae in Novgorod. — Peace Concluded Throughout IIussia. — Insult of 
Andre and its Consequences. — Greatness of Soul Displayed by Andre. — As- 
sassination OF Andke. — Eenewal of Anarchy. — Emigration from Novgorod. — 
Eeign of Michel. — Vsevolod III. — Evangelization of Bulgaria. — Death of 
VsEVOLOD III. — His Queen Maria. 

THE prince of Souzdal watched the progress of events in 
occidental Russia with great interest. He saw clearly 
that war was impoverishing and ruining the country, and this 
led hira to adopt the most wise and vigorous measures to se- 
cure peace within his own flourishing territories. He adopted 
the system of centralized power, keeping the reins of govern- 
ment firmly in his own hands, and appointing governors over 
remote provinces, who were merely the executors of his will, 
and who were responsible to him for all their acts. At Kief 
the system of independent apanages prevailed. The lord 
placed at the head of a principality was an unlimited despot, 
accountable to no one but God for his administration. His 
fealty to the king consisted merely in an understanding that 
he was to follow the banner of the sovereign in case of war. 
But in fact, these feudal lords were more frequently found 
claiming entire independence, and struggling against their 
nominal sovereign to wrest from his hands the scepter. 

Rostislaf was now far advanced in years. Conscious that 
death could not be far distant, he took a journey, though iu 



86 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

very feeble health, to some of the adjacent provinces, hoping 
to induce them to receive his son as his successor. On this 
journey he died at Smolensk, the 14th of March, 1167. Re- 
ligious thoughts had in his latter years greatly engrossed his 
attention. He breathed his last, praying with a trembling 
voice, and fixing his eyes devoutly on an image of the Saviour 
which he held devoutly in his hand. He exhibited many 
Christian virtues, and for many years manifested much solici- 
tude that he might be prepared to meet God in judgment. 
The earnest remonstrances, alone, of his spiritual advisers, 
dissuaded him from abdicating the throne, and adopting the 
austerities of a monastic life. He was not a man of com- 
manding character, but it is pleasant to believe that he was, 
though groping in much darkness, a sincere disciple of the 
Saviour, and that he passed from earth to join the spirits of 
the just made perfect in Heaven. 

Mstislaf Ysiaslavitch, a nephew of the deceased king, as- 
cended the throne. He had however uncles, nephews and 
brothers, who were quite disposed to dispute with him the 
possession of power, and soon civil war was raging all over 
the kingdom with renewed virulence. Several years of de- 
struction and misery thus passed away, during which thou- 
sands of the helpless people perished in their blood, to decide 
questions of not the slightest moment to them. The doom of 
the peasants was alike poverty and toil, whether one lord or an- 
other lord occupied the castle which overshadowed their huts. 

The Dnieper w^as then the only channel through which 
commerce could be conducted between Russia and the Greek 
empire. Barbaric nations inhabited the shores of this stream, 
and they had long been held in check by the Russian armies. 
But now the kingdom had become so enfeebled by war and 
anarchy, all the energies of the Russian princes being ex- 
hausted in civil strife, that the barbarians plundered with im- 
punity the boats ascending and descending the stream, and 
eventually rendered the navigation so perilous, that comraer- 



MSTISLAF AND ANDEE. 87 

cial communication with the empire was at an end. The Rus- 
sian princes thus debarred from the necessaries and luxuries 
which they had been accustomed to receive from the more 
highly civilized and polished Greeks, were impelled to mea- 
sures of union for mutual protection. The king, in this emer- 
gence, issued a proclamation which met with a general re- 
sponse. 

"Russia, our beloved country," exclaimed Mstislaf, "groans 
beneath the stripes which the barbarians are laying upon her, 
and which we are unable to avenge. They have taken solemn 
oaths of friendship, they have received our presents, and now, 
regardless of the faith of treaties, they capture our Christian 
subjects and drag them as slaves into their desert wilds. 
There is no longer any safety for our merchant boats navi- 
gating the Dnieper. The barbarians have taken possession of 
that only route through which we can pass into Greece. It is 
time for us to resort to new measures of energy. My friends 
and ray brothers, let us terminate our unnatural war ; let us 
look to God for help, and, drawing the sword of vengeance, 
let us fall in united strength upon our savage foes. It is glo- 
rious to ascend to Heaven from the field of honor, thus to fol- 
low in the footsteps of our father." 

This spirited appeal was eftective. The princes rallied each 
at the head of a numerous band of vassals, and thus a large 
army was soon congregated. The desire to punish the insult- 
ing barbarians inspired universal enthusiasm. The masses of 
the people were aroused to avenge their friends who had been 
carried into captivity. The priests, with prayers and anthems, 
blessed the banners of the faithful, and, on the 2d of March, 
1168, the army, elate with hope and nerved with vengeance, 
conmienced their descent of the river. The barbarians, terri- 
fied by the storm which they had raised, and from whose fury 
they could attain no shelter, fled so precipitately that they 
left their wives and their children behind them. The Rus- 
sians, abandoning the incumbrance of their baggage, pursued 



88 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

them in the hottest haste. Over the hills, and through the 
valleys, and across the streams pursuers and pursued rushed 
on, until, at last, the fugitives were overtaken upon the banks 
of a deep and rapid stream, which they were unable to cross. 
Mercilessly they were massacred, many Russian prisoners 
were rescued, and booty to an immense amount was taken, 
for these river pirates were rich, having for years been plun- 
dering the commerce of Greece and Russia. According to 
the custom of those days the booty was divided between the 
princes and the soldiers — each man receiving according to 
his rank. 

As the army returned in triumph to the Dniester, to their 
boundless satisfaction they saw the pennants of a merchant 
fleet ascending the river from Constantinople, laden with the 
riches of the emj^ii-e. The army crowded the shores and 
greeted the barges with all the demonstrations of exultation 
and joy. 

The punishment of the barbarians being thus effectually 
accomplished, the princes immediately commenced anew their 
strife. All their old feuds were revived. Every lord wished 
to increase his OAvn power and to diminish that of his natural 
rival. Andre, of Souzdal, to whom we have before referred, 
whose capital was the little village of Moscow far away in 
the interior, deemed the moment favorable for dethroning 
Mstislaf and extending the area of such freedom as his sub- 
jects enjoyed over the realms of Novgorod and Kief. He 
succeeded in uniting eleven princes with him in his enterprise. 
His measures were adopted with great secresy. Assembhng 
his armies, curtained by leagues of forests, he, unobserved, 
commenced his march toward the Dnieper. The banners of 
the numerous army were already visible from the steeples of 
Kief before the sovereign was apprised of his danger. For 
two days the storms of Avar beat against the walls and roared 
around the battlements of the city, when the besiegers, burst- 
ing over the walls, swept the streets in horrid carnage. 



MSTISLAF AND ANDHfi. - 89 

This mother of the Russian cities had often been besieged 
and often capitulated, but never before had it been taken by 
storm, and never before, and never since, have the horrors of 
war been more sternly exhibited. For three days and three 
nights the city and its inhabitants were surrendered to the 
brutal soldiery. The imagination shrinks from contemplating 
the awful scene. The world of woe may be challenged to ex- 
hibit any thing worse. Fearful, indeed, must be the corrup. 
tion when man can be capable of such inhumanity to his fel 
low man. War unchains the tis^er and shows his nature. 

Mstislaf, the sovereign, in the midst of the confusion, the 
upioar and the blood, succeeded almost as by miracle in es- 
caping from the wretched city, basely, however, abandoning 
his wife and his children to the enemy. Thus fell Kief. For 
some centuries it had been the capital of Russia. It was such 
no more. The victorious Andre, of Moscow, was now, by the 
energies of his sword, sovereign of the empire. Kief became 
but a provincial and a tributary city, which the sovereign 
placed under the governorship of his brother Gleb. 

Nearly all the provinces of known Russia were now more 
or less tributary to Andre. Three princes only preserved 
their independence. As the army of Andre retired, Gleb 
was left in possession of the throne of Kief. In those days 
there were always many petty princes, ready to embark with 
their followers in any enterprise which promised either glory 
or booty. Mstislaf, the fugitive sovereign, soon gathered 
around him semi-savage bands, entered the province of Kief, 
plundering and burning the homes of his former subjects. 
As he approached Kief, Gleb, unprepared for efficient resist- 
ance, was compelled to seek safety in flight. The inhabitants 
of the city, to escape the horrors of another siege and sack, 
threw open their gates, and crowded out to meet their former 
monarch as a returning friend. Mstislaf entered the city in 
triumph and quietly reseated himself upon the throne. He 
however ascended it but to die. A sudden disease seized him, 



90 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

and the songs of triumph which greeted his entrance, died 
away in requiems and wailings, as he was borne to the silent 
tomb. With dying breath he surrendered his throne to his 
younger brother Yaroslaf. 

Andre, at Moscow, had other formidable engagements on 
hand, which prevented his interposition in the affairs of Kief. 
The Novgorodians had bidden defiance to his authority, and 
their subjugation w^as essential, before any troops could be 
spared to chastise the heir of Mstislaf. Tiie Novgorodian 
army had even penetrated the realms of Andre, and were 
exacting tiibute from his provinces. The grand jjrince, Andre 
liimself, was far advanced in years, opposed to war, and had 
probably been pushed on in his enterprises by the ambition 
of his son, who was also named Mstislaf. This young prince 
was impetuous and fiery, greedy for military glory, and rest- 
less in his graspings for power. The ISTovgorodians were also 
warlike and indomitable. The conflict between two such 
powers arrested the attention of all Russia. Mstislaf made 
the most extensive preparations for the attack upon the 'Nov- 
gorodians, and they, in their turn, were equally energetic in 
preparations for the defense. The army marched from Mos- 
cow, and following tlie valley of the Masta, entered the 
spacious province of Novgorod. They entered the region, 
not like wolves, not like men, but hke demons. The torch 
was applied to every hut, to every village, to every town. 
They amused themselves with tossing men, women and 
children upon their camp-fires, glowing like furnaces. The 
sword and the spear were too merciful instruments of death. 
The flames of the burning towns blazed along the horizon 
night after night, and the cry of the victims roused the 
Novgorodians to the intensest thirst for vengeance. 

With the sweep of utter desolation, Mstislaf appi-oached 
the city, and when his army stood before the walls, there was 
behind him a path, leagues in width, and two hundred miles 
in length, covered with ruins, ashes and the bodies of the 



MSTISLAF AND ANDEI). 91 

dead. It was the 25th of February, 1170. The city was 
immediately summoned to surrender. The Novgorodians 
appalled by the fate of Kief, and by the horrors which had 
accompanied the march of Mstislaf, took a solemn oath that 
they would struggle to the last drop of blood in defense of 
their liberties. The clergy in procession, bearing the image 
of the Virgin in their arms, traversed the fortifications of the 
city, and with prayers, hymns and the most imposing Chris- 
tian rites, inspired the soldiers with religious enthusiasm. 
The Novgorodians threw themselves upon their knees, and 
in simultaneous prayer cried out, with the blending of ten 
thousand voices, " O God ! come and help us, come and help 
us." Thus roused to frenzy, with the clergy chanting hymns 
of battle and pleading with Heaven for success, with the 
image of the Virgin contemplating their deeds, the soldiers 
rushed from behind their ramparts upon the foe. Death was 
no longer dreaded. The only thought of every man was to 
sell his life as dearly as possible. 

Such an onset of maniacal energy no mortal force could 
stand. The soldiers of Mstislaf fell as the waving grain 
bows before the tornado. Their defeat was utter and awful. 
Mercy was not thought of. Sword and javelin cried only for 
blood, blood. The wretched Mstislaf in dismay fled, leaving 
two thirds of his army in gory death ; and, in his flight, he 
met that chastisement which his cruelties merited. He had 
to traverse a path two hundred miles in length, along which 
not one field of grain had been left undestroyed ; where every 
dwelling was in ashes, and no animal life whatever had es- 
caped his ravages. Starvation was his doom. Every rod of 
tlie way his emaciated soldiers dropped dead in their steps. 
Famine also with all its woes reigned in ISTovgorod. Under 
these circumstances, the two parties consented to peace, the 
Novgorodians retaining their independence, but accepting a 
brother of the grand prince Andre to succeed their own 
prince, who was then at the point of death. 



92 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Andre, having thus terminated the strife with Novgorod 
by the peace which he loved, turned his attention to Kief, 
and with characteristic humanity, gratified the wishes of the 
inhabitants by allowing them to accept Roman, prince of 
Smolensk, as their chieftain. Roman entered the city, greeted 
by the most flattering testimonials of the joy of the inhab- 
itants, while they united with him in the oath of allegiance to 
Andre as the sovereign of Russia. Andre, who was ever dis- 
jDOsed to establish his sovereign power, not by armies but by 
equity and moderation, and who seems truly to have felt that 
the welfare of Russia required that all its provinces should be 
united under common laws and a common sovereign, turned 
his attention again to Novgorod, hoping to persuade its 
inhabitants to relinquish their independence and ally them- 
selves with the general empire. 

Rurik, the brother of Andre, who had been appointed 
prince of Novgorod, proved unpopular, and was driven from 
his command. Andre, instead of endeavoring to force him 
back upon them by the energies of his armies, with a wise 
spirit of conciliation acquiesced in their movement, and sent 
to them his young son, George, as a prince, offering to assist 
them with his counsel and to aid them with his military force 
whenever they should desire it. Thus internal peace was 
established throughout the empire. By gradual advances, 
and with great sagacity, Andre, from his humble palace in 
Moscow, extended his influence over the remote provinces, 
and established his power. 

The princes of Kief and its adjacent provinces became 
jealous of the encroachments of Andre, and hostile feelings 
were excited. The king at length sent an embassador to 
them with very imperious commands. The embassador was 
seized at Kief, his hair and beard shaven, and was then sent 
back to Moscow with the defiant message, 

" Until now we have wished to respect you as a father ; 
but since you do not blush to treat us as vassals and as peas- 



MSTISLAF AND ANDE^. 93 

ants — since you have forgotten that you speak to princes, we 
spurn your menaces. Execute them. We appeal to the judg- 
ment of God." 

This orrievous insult of word and deed roused the Indiana- 
tion of the aaed monarch as it had never been roused before. 
He assembled an army of fifty thousand men, who were ren- 
dezvoused at Novgorod, and placed under the command of 
the king's son, Georges. Another army, nearly equal in num- 
ber, was assembled at Tchernigof, collected from the prin-^ 
cipalities of Polotsk, Tourof, Grodno, Pinsk and Smolensk. 
The bands of this army were under the several princes of the 
provinces. Sviatoslaf, grandson of the renowned Oleg, was 
entrusted with the supreme command. These two majestic 
forces were soon combined upon the banks of the Dnieper. 
All resistance fled before them, and with strides of triumph 
they marched down the valley to Kief. The princes who had 
aroused this storm of war fled to Vouoychegorod, an impor- 
tant fortress further down the river, where they strongly 
entrenched themselves, and sternly awaited the advance of 
the foe. The royalist forces, having taken possession of Kief, 
pursued the fugitives. The march of armies so vast, conduct- 
ing war upon so grand a scale, excited the astonishment of all 
the inhabitants upon the river's banks. . A little fortress, de- 
fended by a mere handful of men, appeared to them an object 
unworthy of an army sufliciently powerful to crush an empire. 

But in the fortress there was perfect unity, and its com- 
mander had the soul of a lion. In the camp of the besiegers 
there was neither harmony nor zeal. Many of the princes 
were inimical to the king, and were jealous of his growing 
power. Others were envious of Sviatoslaf, the commander- 
in-chief, a:^d were willing to sacrifice their own fame that he 
might be humbled. ISTot a few even were in sympathy with 
the insurgents, and were almost disposed to unite under their 
bannei^. 

It was the 8th of September, 1173, when the royali:?t 



94 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

forces encircled the fortress. Gunpowder was then unknown, 
and contending armies could only meet hand to hand. For 
two months the siege was continued, with bloody conflicts 
every day. Wintry winds swept the plains, and storms of 
snow whitened the fields, when, from the battlements of the 
fortress, the besieged saw the banners of another army ap- 
proaching the arena. They knew not whether the distant 
battalions were friends or foes ; but it was certain that their 
approach would decide the strife, for each party was so ex- 
hausted as to be unable to resist any new assailants. Soon the 
signals of war proclaimed that an army was approaching for 
the rescue of the fortress. Shouts of exultation rose from the 
garrison, which fell like the knell of death upon the ears of 
the besiegers, freezing on the plains. The alarm which spread 
through the camp was instantaneous and terrible. The dark- 
ness of a November night soon settled down over city and 
j^lain. With the first rays of the morning the garrison were 
upon the walls, when, to their surprise, they saw the whole 
vast army in rapid and disordered flight. The plains around 
the fortress were utterly deserted and covered with the wrecks 
of war. The garrison immediately rushed from behind their 
ramparts united with their approaching friends and pursued 
the fugitives. 

The royalists, in their dismay, attempted to cross the river 
on the fragile ice. It broke beneath the enormous weight, 
and thousands perished in the cold stream. The remainder 
of this great host were almost to a man either slain or taken 
captive. Their whole camp and baggage fell into the hands 
of the conquerors. This wonderful victory, achieved by the 
energies of Mstislaf, has given him a name in Russian annals 
as one of the most renowned and brave of the princes of the 
empire. 

George, prince of Novgorod, son of Andre, escaped from 
the carnage of that ensanguined Held, and overwhelmed with 
shame, returned to his father in Moscow. The king, in this 



MSTISLAF AND ANDR^. 95 

extremity, developed true greatness of soul. He exhibited 
neither dejection nor anger, but bowed to the calamity as to 
a chastisement he needed, from God. The victory of the in- 
surgents, if they may be so called, who occupied the prov- 
inces in the valley of the Dnieper, was not promotive either 
of prosperity or peace. Mindful of the former grandeur of 
Kief, as the ancient capital of the Russian empire, ambitious 
])rinces were immediately contending for the possession of 
tliat throne. After several months of confusion and blood, 
Andre succeeded, by skillful diplomacy, in again inducing 
them, for the sake of general tranquillity, to come under the 
general government of the empire. The nobles could not but 
respect him as the most aged of their princes; as a man of 
imperial energy and ability, and as the one most worthy to be 
their chief. Pie alone had the power to preserve tranquillity 
in extended Russia. They therefore applied to him to take 
Kief, under certain restrictions, again into his protection, and 
to nominate for that city a prince who should be in his alliance. 
This homage was acceptable to Andre. 

But while he was engaged in this negotiation, a conspiracy 
was formed against the monarch, and he was cruelly assasin- 
ated. It was the night of the 29th of June, 11'74. The king 
was sleeping in a chateau, two miles from Moscow. At mid- 
night the conspirators, twenty in number, having inflamed 
themselves with brandy, burst into the house and rushed to- 
wards the chamber where the aged monarch was reposing. The 
clamor awoke the king, and he sprang from the bed just as 
two of the conspii'ators entered his chamber. Aged as the 
monarch was, with one blow of his vigorous arm he felled the 
foremost to the floor. The comrade of tlie assassin, in the 
confusion, thinking it was the king who had fallen, plunged 
his poignard to the hilt in his companion's breast. Other as- 
sassins rushed in and fell upon the monarch. He was a man 
of gigantic powers, and struggled against his foes with almost 
supernatural energy, filling the chateau with his shrieks for 



96 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

help. At last, pierced with innumerable wounds, he fell in 
his blood, apparently silent in death. The assassins, terrified 
by the horrible scene, and apprehensive that the guard might 
come to the rescue of the king, caught up their dead comrade 
and fled. 

The monarch had, however, but fainted. He almost in- 
stantly revived, and with impetuosity and bravery, seized his 
sword and gave chase to the murderers, shouting with all his 
strength to his attendants to hasten to his aid. The assassins 
turned upon him. They had lanterns in their hands, and were 
twenty to one. The first blow struck off the right arm of the 
king ; a saber thrust pierced his heart, passed through his 
body, and the monarch fell dead. His last words were, 
" Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit." There is, to 
this day, preserved a cimeter of Grecian w^orkmanship, which 
tradition says was the sword of Andre. Upon the blade is 
incribed in Greek letters, " Holy mother of God, assist thy 
servant." 

The death of the monarch was the signal for the universal 
outbreak of violence and crime. Where the sovereisfn is the 
only law, the death of the monarch is the destruction of the 
government. The anarchy w^hich sometimes succeeded his 
death was awful. The Russian annalists cherish the memory 
of Andre affectionately. They say that he was courageous, sa- 
gacious and a true Christian, and that he merited the title he 
has received of a second Solomon. Had he established his 
throne in the more central city of Kief instead of the remote 
village of Moscow, he could more efficiently have governed 
the empire ; but, blinded by his love for his own northern 
realms, he was ambitious of elevating his own native village, 
unfavorable as w^as its location, into the capital of the empire. 
During his whole reign he manifested great zeal in extending 
Christianity through the empire, and evinced great interest 
m efforts for the conversion of the Jews. 

Just before 'the death of the king, a number of the inhab- 



MSTISLAF AND ANDE^. 97 

itants of 'N'ovgorod, fatigued with civil strife and crowded out 
by the density of the population, formed a party to emigrate 
to the uninhabited lands far away in the East. Traversing a 
region of about three hundred miles on the parallel of fifty- 
seven degrees of latitude, they reached the head waters of 
the Yolga. Here they embarked in boats and drifted down 
the wild stream for a thousand miles to the mouth of the 
river Kama, where they established a colony. At this point 
they were twelve hundred miles north of the point where the 
Yolga empties into the Caspian. Other adventurers soon fol- 
lowed, and flourishing colonies sprang up all along the banks 
of the Kama and the Viatha. This region was the Missouri 
valley of Russia. By this emigration the Russian name, its 
manners, its institutions, were extended through a sweep of 
a thousand miles. 

The colonists had many conflicts with the aboriginal inhab- 
itants, but Russian civilization steadily advanced over barbaric 
force. 

Soon after the death of Andre, the nobles of that region 
met in a public assembly to organize some form of confederate 
government. One of the speakers rose and said, " No one is 
ignorant of the manner in which we have lost our king. He 
has left but one son, who reigns at Novgorod. The brothers 
of Andre are in southern Russia. Who then shall we choose 
for our sovereign ? Let us elect Michel, of Tchernigof. He 
is the oldest son of Monomaque and the most ancient of the 
princes of his family." 

Embassadors were immediately sent to Michel, offering 
him the throne and promising him the support of the confed- 
erate princes. Michel hastened to Moscow with a strong 
array, supported by several princes, and took possession of 
Moscow and the adjacent provinces. A little opposition was 
manifested, which he speedily quelled with the sword. Great 
rejoicings welcomed the enthronement of a new prince and 
*he restoration of order. Michel proved worthy of his eleva- 

5 



98 THE EMPIRE OFRUSSIA. 

tion. He immediately traversed the different provinces in 
that region, and devoted himself to the tranquillity and pros- 
perity of his people. The popularity of the new sovereign 
was at its height. All lips praised him, all hearts loved him. 
He was declared to be a special gift which Heaven, in its 
boundless mercy, had conferred. Unfortunately, this virtu- 
ous prince reigned but one year, leaving, however, in that 
short time, upon the Russian annals many memorials of his 
valor and of his virtue. It was a barbaric age, rife with per- 
fidy and crime, yet not one act of treachery or cruelty has 
sullied his name. It was his ambition to be the father of his 
people, and the glory he sought was the happiness and the 
greatness of his country. 

Southern Russia was still the theater of interminable civil 
war. The provinces were impoverished, and Kief was fast 
sinking to decay. Michel had a brother, Vsevelod, who had 
accompanied him to Moscow. The nobles and the leading 
citizens, their eyes still dim with the tears which they had 
shed over the tomb of their sovereign, urged him to accept 
the crown. He was not reluctant to accede to their request, 
and received their oaths of fidelity to him under the title of 
Vsevelod III. His title, however, was disputed by distant 
princes, and an armed band, approaching Moscow by surprise, 
seized the town and reduced it to ashes, ravaged the sur- 
rounding region, and carried off the women and children as 
captives. Vsevelod was, at the time, absent in the extreme 
northern portion of his territory, but he turned upon his ene- 
mies with the heart and with the strength of a lion. It was 
midwinter. Regardless of storms, and snow and cold, hv3 
pursued the foe like the north wind, and crushed them as 
with an iron hand. With a large number of prisoners he 
returned to the ruins of Moscow. 

Two of the most illustrious of the hostile princes were 
among the prisoners. The people, enraged at the destruc- 



MSTISLAF AND ANDE^. 99 

tion of their city, fell upon the captives, and, seizing the two 
princes, tore out their eyes. 

Vsevelod was a young man who had not acquired renown. 
Many of the warUke princes of the spacious provinces re- 
garded his elevation with envy. Sviatoslaf, prince of Tcher- 
nigof, was roused to intense hostility, and gathering around 
him the nobles of his province, resolved with a vigorous arm 
to seize for himself the throne. Enlisting in his interests 
several other princes, he commenced his march against his 
sovereign. Vsevelod prepared with vigor to repulse his as- 
sailants. After long and weary marchings the two armies 
met in the defiles of the mountains. A swift mountain-stream 
rushing along its rocky bed, between deep and precipitous 
banks, separated the combatants. For a fortnight they vainly 
assailed each other, hurling clouds of arrows and javelins 
across the stream, which generally fell harmless upon brazen 
helmet and buckler. But few were wounded, and still fewer 
slain. Yet neither party dared venture the passage of the 
stream in the presence of the other. At length, weary of the 
unavailing conflict, Sviatoslaf, the insurgent chief, sent a chal- 
lenge to Vsevelod, the sovereign. 

" Let God," said he, " decide the dispute between us. Let 
us enter into the open field with our two armies, and submit 
the question to the arbitrament of battle. You may choose 
either side of the river which you please." 

Vsevelod did not condescend to make any reply to the 
rebellious prince. Seizing his embassadors, he sent them as 
captives to Vlademer, a fortress some hundred, miles east of 
Moscow. He hoped thus to provoke Sviatoslaf to attempt 
the passage of the stream. But Sviatoslaf was not to be 
thus entrapped. Breaking up his camp, he retired to Nov- 
gorod, w^here he was received with rejoicings by the inhab- 
itants. Here he established himself as a monarch, accumu- 
lated his forces, and began, by diplomacy and by arms, to ex- 
tend his conquests over the adjacent principalities. He sent 



100 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

a powerful army to descend the banks of the Dnieper, cap- 
turing all the cities on the right liand and on the left, and 
binding the inhabitants by oaths of allegiance. The army 
advancing with resistless strides arrived before the walls of 
Kief, took possession o£' the deserted palaces of this ancient 
capital, and Sviatoslaf proclaimed himself monarch of south- 
ern Russia. 

But while Sviatoslaf was thus prosecuting his conquests, 
at the distance of four hundred miles south of Novgorod, 
Ysevelod advanced with an army to this city, and was in his 
turn received by the Novgorodians with the ringing of bells, 
bonfires and shouts of welcome. All the surrounding princes 
and nobles promptly gave in their adhesion to the victorious 
sovereign, and Sviatoslaf found that all his conquests had 
vanished as by magic from beneath his hand. 

Under these circumstances, Ysevelod and Sviatoslaf were 
both inclined to negotiation. As the result, it was agreed 
that Ysevelod should be recognized as the monarch of Rus- 
sia, and that Sviatoslaf should reign as tributary prince of 
Kief. To bind anew the ties of friendship, Ysevelod gave in 
marriage his beautiful sister to the youngest son of Sviatos- 
laf. Thus this civil strife w^as terminated. 

But the gates of the temple of Janus were not yet to be 
closed. Foreign w^ar now commenced, and raged with un- 
usual ferocity. Six hundred miles east of Moscow, was the 
country of Bulgaria. It comprehended the present Russian 
province of Orenburg, and was bounded on the east by the 
Ural mountains, and on the west by the Yolga. A popula- 
tion of nearly a million and a half inhabited this mountain- 
ous realm. Commerce and arts flourished, and the people 
were enriched by their commerce with the Grecian empire. 
They were, however, barbarians, and as even in the nineteenth 
century the slave trade is urged as a means of evangelizing 
the heathen of Africa, war was urged with all its carnage and 
woe, as the agent of disseminating Christianity through pagan 



MSTISLAF AND ANDR]6. 10] 

Bulgaria. The motive assigned for the war, was to serve 
Christ, by the conversion of the infidel. The motives which 
i«fluenced, were ambition, love of conquest and the desire to 
add to the opulence and the power of Russia. 

Ysevelod made grand preparations for this enterprise. 
Conferring with the warlike Sviatoslaf and other ambitious 
princes, a large army was collected at the head waters of the 
Volga. They floated down the wild stream, in capacious flat- 
bottomed barges, till they came to the mouth of the Kama 
Thus far their expedition had been like the jaunt of a gala 
day. Summer warmth and sunny skies had cheered them as 
they floated down the romantic stream, through forests, be- 
tween mountains and along flowery savannas, with pennants 
floating gayly in the air, and music swelling from their martial 
bands. War has always its commencement of pomp and 
pageantry, followed by its terminations of woe and despair. 

Vsevelod in person led the army. Near the mouth of 
the Kama they abandoned their flotilla, which could not be 
employed in ascending the rapid stream. Continuing their 
march by land, they pushed boldly into the country of the 
Bulgarians, and laid siege to their capital, which was called 
" The Great City." For six days the battle raged, and the 
city was taken. It proved, however, to be but a barren con- 
quest. An arrow from the walls pierced the side of a beloved 
nephew of Vsevelod. The young man, in excruciating agony, 
died in the arms of the monarch. Vsevelod was so much 
affected by the suff*erings which he was thus called to witness, 
that, dejected and disheartened, he made the best terms he 
could, soothing his pride by extorting from the vanquished a 
vague acknowledgment of subjection to the empire. He then 
commenced his long march of toil and suflering back again to 
Moscow, over vast plains and through dense forests, having 
really accomplished nothing of any moment. 

The reign of Vsevelod continued for thirty-seven years. 
It was a scene of incessant conflict with insurgent princes dis- 



102 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

puting his power and struggling for the supremacy. Often 
his imperial title was merely nominal. Again a successful 
battle would humble his foes and bring them in subjection to 
the foot of his throne. But, on the whole, during his reign 
the fragmentary empire gained solidity, the monarchical arm 
gained strength, and the sovereign obtained a more marked 
supremacy above the rival princes who had so long disputed 
the power of the throne. Vsevelod died, generally regretted, 
on the 12th of April, 1212. In the Russian annals, he has 
received the surname of Great. His reign, compared with 
that of most of his predecessors, was happy. He left, in 
churches and in fortresses, many monuments of his devotion 
and of his military skill. 

His wife, Maria, seems to have been a woman of sincere 
piety. Her brief pilgrimage on earth, passed six hundred 
years ago, led her through the same joys and griefs which in 
the ninteenth century oppress human hearts. The last seven 
years of her life she passed on a bed of sickness and extreme 
suffering. The patience she displayed caused her to be com- 
pared with the patriarch Job. Just before she died, she 
assembled her six surviving children around her bed. As 
with tears they gazed upon the emaciated cheeks of their 
beloved and dying mother, she urged them to love God, to 
study the Bible, to give their hearts to the Saviour and to live 
for heaven. She died universally regretted and revered. 

The reign of Vsevelod was cotemporaneous with the con- 
quest of Constantinople by the crusaders. The Latin or 
Roman church thus for a season extended its dominion over 
the Greek or Eastern church. The French and NTenetians: 
robbed the rich churches of Constantine of their paintings, 
statuary, relics and all their treasures of art. The Greek 
emperor himself fled in disguise to Thrace. 

The Roman pontiff. Innocent III., deeming this a favor- 
able moment to supplant the Greek rehgion in Russia, sent 
letters to the Russian clergy, in which he said : 



MSTISLAF AND ANDKfi. 103 

"The religion of Rome is becoming universally trium- 
phant. The whole Grecian empire has recognized the spirit- 
ual power of the pope,* Will you be the only people who 
refuse to enter into the fold of Christ, and to recognize the 
Roman church as the ark of salvation, out of which no one 
can be saved ? I have sent to you a cardinal ; a man noble, 
well-instructed, and legate of the successors of the Apostles. 
He has received full power to enlighten the minds of the Rus- 
sians, and to rescue them from all their errors." 

This pastoral exhortation was entirely unavailing. The 
bishops and clergy of the Russian church still pertinaciously 
adhered to the faith of their fathers. The crusaders were ere 
long driven from the imperial city, and the Greek church 
again attained its supremacy in the East, a supremacy which 
it has maintained to the present day. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GRAND PRINCES OF YLADIMIR, AND THE INVASION 
OP GENGHIS KHAN. 

Erom 1212 TO 1238. 
AccESSiOK OF Geobqes. — Famine. — Battle of Lipetsk. — Defeat of Georges — His 

SUEBENDEE. — CONSTANTIN SEIZES THE SCEPTER. — EXPLOITS OF MSTISLAF. — IMBECIL- 
ITY OF CONSTANTIN. — DeATH OF CONSTANTIN. — GeORGES III. — INVASION OF BUL- 
GARIA. — Progress of the Monarchy. — Eight of Succession. — Commerce of tub 
Dnieper. — Genghis Khan. — His Kise and Conquests. — Invasion of Southern 
EussiA. — Death of Genghis Khan. — Succession of his Son Ouqadai. — March of 
Bati. — Entrance into Eussia. — Utter Defeat of the Eussians. 

MOSCOW was the capital of a province then called Soiiz- 
dal. North-west of this province^ there was another 
large principality called Vladimir, with a capital of the same 
name, l^orth of these provinces there was'an extensive terri- 
tory named Yaroslave. Immediately after the death of Yse- 
volod, a brother of the deceased monarch, named Georges, 
ascended the throne with the assent of all the nobles of Souz- 
dal and Vladimir. At the same time his brother Constan- 
tin, prince of Yaroslavle, claimed the crown. Eager partizans 
rallied around the two aspirants. Constantin made the first 
move by burning the town of Kostroma and carrying off the 
inhabitants as captives. Georges replied by an equally san- 
guinary assault upon Rostof. Such, war has ever been. When 
princes quarrel, being unable to strike each other, they w^reak 
their vengeance upon innocent and helpless villages, burning 
their houses, slaying sons and brothers, and either dragging 
widows and orphans into captivity or leaving them to perish 
of exposure and starvation. 

In this conflict Georges was victor, and he assigned to his 



THE GRA.ND PRINCES OF VLADIMIR. 105 

brothers and cousins the administration of the provinces of 
southern Russia. Still the ancient annals give us nothing but 
a dreary record of war. A very energetic prince arose, by 
the name of Mstislaf, who, for years, strode over subjugated 
provinces, desolating them with fire and sword. Another 
horrible famine commenced its ravages at this time, caused 
principally by the desolations of war, throughout all northern 
and eastern Russia. The starving inhabitants ate the bark 
of trees, leaves and the most disgusting reptiles. The streets 
were covered with the bodies of the dead, abandoned to the 
dogs. Crowds of skeleton men and women wandered through 
the fields, in vain seeking food, and ever dropping in the con- 
vulsions of death. Christian faith is stunned in the contem- 
plation of such woes, and yet it sees in them but the fruits of 
man's depravity. The enigma of life can find no solution but 
in divine revelation — and even that revelation does but show 
in what direction the solution lies. 

Mstislaf of Novgorod, encouraged by his military success, 
and regardless of the woes of the populace, entered into an 
alliance with Constantin, promising, with his aid, to drive 
Georges from the throne, and to place the scepter in the 
hands of Constantin. The king sent an army often thousand 
men against the insurgents. All over Russia there was the 
choosing of sides, as prince after prince ranged his followers 
under the banners of one or of the other of the combatants. 
At last the two armies met upon the banks of the river Kza. 
The Russian annalists say that the sovereign was surrounded 
with the banners of thirty regiments, accompanied by a mili- 
tary band of one hundred and forty trumpets and drums. 

The insurgent princes, either alarmed by the. power of the 
sovereign, or anxious to spare the effusion of blood, proposed 
terms of accommodation. 

" It is too late to talk of peace,'' said Georges. " You 
are now as fishes on the land. You have advanced too far, 
and your destruction is inevitable." 

5* 



106 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

. The embassadors retired in sadness. Georges then assem- 
bled his captains, and gave orders to form the troops in line 
of battle. Addressing the troops, he said : 

" Let no soldier's life be spared. Aim particularly at the 
officers. The helmets, the clothes and the horses of the dead 
pkall belong to you. Let us not be troubled with any pris- 
oners. The princes alone may be taken captive, and reserved 
for public execution." 

Both parties now prepared, wuth soundings of the trum- 
pet and shoutings of the soldiers, for combat. It was in the 
early dawn of the morning that the celebrated battle of 
Lipetsk commenced. The arena of strife was a valley, broken 
by rugged hills, on the head waters of the Don, about two 
hundred miles south of Moscow. It was a gloomy day of 
wind, and clouds and rain ; and while the cruel tempest of 
man's passion swept the earth, an elemental tempest wrecked 
the skies. From the morning till the evening twilight the 
battle raged, inspired by the antagonistic forces of l^aughty 
confidence and of despair. Darkness separated the combat- 
ants, neither party having gained any decisive advantage. 

The night was freezing cold, a chill April wind sweeping 
the mists over the heights, upon w^hich the two hosts, ex- 
hausted and bleeding, slept upon their arms, each fearing a 
midnight surprise. With the earliest dawn of the next morn- 
ing the battle was renewed ; both armies defiantly and simul- 
taneously moving down from the hills to meet on the plains. 
Mstislaf rode along the ranks of his troops, exclaiming : 

"Let no man turn his head. Retreat now is destruction. 
Let us forget our wives and children, and fight for our lives." 

His soldiers, with shouts of enthusiasm, threw aside all 
encumbering clothes, and uttering those loud outcries with 
which semi-barbarians ever rush into battle, impetuously fell 
upon the advancing foe. Mstislaf was a prince of herculean 
stature and strength. With a battle-ax in his hands, he ad- 
vanced before the troops, and it is recorded that, striking on 



THE GRAND P K I N C E S OF VLADIMIK. lOT 

the right hand and the left, he cut a path through the ranks 
of the enemy as a strong man would trample down the grain. 
A wake of the dead marked his path. It was one of the 
most deplorable of Russian battles, for the dispute had ar- 
rayed the son against the father, brother against brother, 
friend against friend. 

The victory, however, was now not for a moment doubtful. 
The royal forces were entirely routed, and were pursued with 
enormous slaughter by the victorious Mstislaf. Nearly ten 
thousand of the followers of Georges were slain upon the 
field of battle. Georges having had three horses killed be- 
neath him, escaped, and on the fourth day reached Vladimir, 
where he found only old men, women, children and ecclesias- 
tics, so entirely had he drained the country for the war. 
The king himself was the first to announce to the citizens of 
Vladimir the terrible defeat. Wan from fatigue and sufiering, 
he rode in at the gates, his hair disheveled, and his clothing 
torn. As he tiaversed the streets, he called earnestly upon 
all who remained to rally upon the walls for their defense. 
It was late in the afternoon when the king reached the metrop- 
olis. During the night a throng of fugitives was continually 
entering the city, wounded and bleeding. In the early morn- 
ing, the king assembled the citizens in the public square, and 
urged them to a desperate resistance. But they, disheartened 
by the awful reverse, exclaimed : 

"Prince, courage can no longer save us. Our brethren 
have perished on the field of battle. Those who have escaped 
are wounded, exhausted and unarmed. We are unable to 
oppose the enemy." 

Georges entreated them to make at least a show of resist- 
ance, that he might open negotiations with the foe. Soon 
Mstislaf appeared, leading his troops in solid phalanx, with 
waving banners and trumpet blasts, and surrounded the city. 
in the night, a terrible conflagration burst forth within the 
city, and his soldiers entreated him to take advantage of the 



108 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

confusion for an immediate assault. The maonaniraous con- 
queror refused to avail himself of the calamity, and restrained 
the ardor of his troops. The next morning, Georges despair- 
ing of any further defense, rode from the gates into the camp 
of Mstislaf. 

" You are victorious," said he. " Dispose of me and my 
fortunes as you will. My brother Constantin will be obedient 
t(^ your wishes." 

The uuliappy prince w^as sent into exile. Embarking, 
With his wife and children, and a few faithful followers, in 
barges, at the head waters of the Volga, he floated down the 
stream towards the Caspian Sea, and disappeared for ever from 
the observation of history. 

Constantin was now raised to the imperial throne through 
the energies of Mstislaf. This latter prince returned to his 
domains in Novgorod, and under the protection of the throne 
he rivaled the monarch in splendor and power, Constantin 
established his capital at Vladimir, about one hundred and 
fifty miles west of Moscow. The warlike Mstislaf, greedy of 
renown, with the chivalry of a knight-errant, sought to have a 
hand in every quarrel then raging far or near. Southern 
Russia continued in a state of incessant embroilments ; and 
the princes of the provinces, but nominally in subjection to 
the crown, lived in a state of interminable war. Occasionally 
they would sheath the sword of civil strife and combine in 
some important expedition against the Hungarians or the 
Poles. 

But tranquillity reigned in the principality of Vladimir ; 
and the adjacent provinces, influenced by the pacific policy of 
the sovereign, or overawed by his power, cultivated the arts 
of peace. Constantin, however, was efieminate as well as 
peaceful. The tremendous energy of Mstislaf had shed some 
luster upon him, and thus, lor a time, it was supposed that he 
possessed a share, no one knew how great, of that extraordi- 
nary vigor which had placed him on the throne. But now, 



THE GRAND PRINCES OP VLADIMIR. 



109 



Mstislaf was far away on bloody fields in Hungary, and the 
princes in the vicinity of Vladimir soon found that Constantin 
had no spirit to resent any of their encroachments. Enor- 
mous crimes were perpetrated with impunity. Princes were 
assassinated, and the murderers seized their castles and their 
scepters, while the imbecile Constantin, instead of avenging 
such outrages, contented himself with shedding tears, build- 
mg churches, distributing alms, and kissing the relics 'of the 
saints, which had been sent to him from Constantinople. 
Thus he lived for several years, a superstitious, perhaps a 
l)ious man ; but, so utterly devoid of energy, of enlightened 
views respecting his duty as a j-uler, that the helple'ss were 
unprotected, and the wicked rioted unpunished in crime. He 
died in the year 1219 at the early age of thirty-three. Find- 
ing death approaching, he called his two sons to his bedside 
and exhorted them to live in brotherly affection, to be the 
benefactors of widows and orphans, and especially to be the 
supporters of religion. The wife of Constantin, imbibing his 
spn-it, immediately upon his death renounced the world^and 
retiring to the cloisters of a convent, immured herself in its 
glooms until she also rejoined her husband in the spirit land, 
Georges II., son of Ysevelod, now ascended the throne! 
He signalized the commencement of his reign by a military 
excursion to oriental Bulgaria. Descending the Volga in 
barges to the mouth of the Kama, he invaded, with a ''well- 
disciplined army, the realm he wished to subjugate. The 
Russians approached the city of Ochel. It was strongly forti- 
fied with palisades and a double wall of wood. The assailants 
approached, led by a strong party with hatchets and torches 
They were closely followed by archers and lancers to drive the 
defenders from the ramparts. The palisades were promptly 
cut down and set on fire. The flames spread to the wooden 
walls; and over the burning ruins the assailants rushed into 
the city. A high wind arose, and the whole city, whose 
buildings were constructed of wood only, soon blazed like a 



110 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA 

volcano. The wretched citizens had but to choose between 
the swords of the Russians and the fire. Many, in their de- 
spair, plunged their poignards into the bosoms of their wives 
and children, and then buried the dripping blade in their own 
hearts. Multitudes of the Russians, even, encircled by the 
flames in the narrow streets, miserably perished. In a few 
hours the city and nearly all of its male inhabitants were de- 
stroyed. Extensive regions of the country were then ravaged, 
and Bulgaria, as a conquered province, was considered as 
annexed to the Russian empire. Georges enriched with plun- 
der and having extorted oaths of allegiance from most of the 
Bulgarian princes, reascended the Yolga to Vladimir. As 
lie was on his return he laid the foundations of a new city, 
Nijni Novgorod, at the confluence of two important streams 
about two hundred miles wes,t of Moscow. The city remains 
to the present day. 

It will be perceived through what slow and vacillating 
steps the Russian monarchy was established. In the earliest 
dawn of the kingdom, Yaroslaf divided Russia into five prin- 
cipalities. To his eldest son he gave the title of Grand Prince, 
constituting him, by his will, chief or monarch of the whole 
kingdom. His younger brothers were placed over the prin- 
cipalities, holding them as vassals of the grand prince at Kief, 
and transmitting the right of succession to their children. 
Ysiaslaf, and some of his descendants, men of great energy, 
succeeded in holding under more or less of restraint the tur- 
bulent princes, who were simply entitled ^:>r^i'^ce5, to distinguish 
them from the Grand Prince or monarch. These princes had 
under them innumerable vassal lords, who, diflTering in wealth 
and extent of dominions, governed, with despotic sway, the 
serfs or peasants subject to their power. No government 
could be more simple than this ; and it was the necessary 
resultant of those stormy times. 

But in process of time feeble grand princes reigned at 
Kief. The vassal princes, strengthening themselves in alliances 



THE GRAND PRINCES OF VLADIMIR. Ill 

with one another, or seeking aid fi'ora foreign semi-civilized 
nations, such as the Poles, the Danes, the Hungarians, often 
imposed laws upon their nominal sovereign, and not unfre- 
quently drove him from the throne, and placed upon it a 
monarch of their own choice. Sviatopolk II. was driven to 
the humiliation of appearing to defend himself from accusa- 
tion before the tribunal of his vassal princes. Monomaque 
and Mstislaf I., with imperial energy, brought all the vassal 
princes in subjection to their scepter, and reigned as mon- 
arcl^. But their successors, not possessing like qualities, 
were unable to maintain the regal dignity; and gradually 
Kief sank into a provincial town, and the scepter was trans- 
ferred to the principality of Souzdal. 

Andre, of Souzdal, abolished the system oi appanages^ as it 
was called, in which the principalities were in entire subjection 
to the princes who reigned over them, these princes only 
rendering vassal service to the sovereign. He, in their stead, 
appointed governors over the distant provinces, who were 
his agents to execute his commands. This measure gave 
new energy and consolidation to the monarchy, and added 
incalculable strength to the regal arm. But the grand princes, 
who immediately succeeded Andre, had rot efficiency to main- 
tain this system, and the princes again regained their position 
of comparative independence. Indeed, they were undisputed 
sovereigns of their principalities, bound enly to recognize the 
superior rank of the grand prince, and to aid him, when 
called upon, as allies. 

In process of time the princes of the five great principal- 
ities, Pereiaslavle, Tchernigof, Kief, Novgorod and Smolensk, 
were subdivided, through the energies of warlike nobles, into 
minor appanages, or independent provinces, independent in 
every thing save feudal service, a service often feebly recog- 
nized and dimly defined. The sovereigns of the great prov- 
inces assumed the title of Grand Princes. The smaller sover- 
eigns were simply called Princes. Under these princes were 



112 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

the petty lords or nobles. The spirit of all evil could not 
have devised a system better calculated to keep a nation 
incessantly embroiled in war. The princes of Novgorod 
claimed the right of choosing their grand prince. In all the 
other provinces the scepter was nominally hereditary. In 
point of fact, it was only hereditary when the one who as- 
cended the throne had sufficient vigor of arm to beat back 
his assailing foes. For two hundred years, during nearly all 
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it is with difficulty we 
can discern any traces of the monarchy. The history of Rus- 
sia during this period is but a history of interminable battles 
between the grand princes, and petty, yet most cruel and 
bloody, conflicts between the minor princes. 

The doctrine of the hereditary descent of the governing 
power was the cause of nearly all these conflicts. A semi- 
idiot or a brutal ruffian was thus often found the ruler of mil- 
lions of energetic men. War and bloodshed were, of course, 
the inevitable result. This absurdity was, perhaps, a neces- 
sary consequence of the ignorance and brutality of the times. 
But happy is that nation which is sufficiently enlightened to 
choose its own magistrates and to appreciate the sanctity of 
the ballot-box. The history of the United States thus far, 
with its elective administrations, is a marvel of tranquillity, 
prosperity and joy, as it is recorded amidst the bloody pages 
of this world's annals. 

According to the ancient custom of Russia, the right of 
succession transferred the crown, not to the oldest son, but to 
the brother or the most aged member belonging to the family 
connections of the deceased prince. The energetic Mono- 
rnaque violated this law by transferring the crown to his son, 
when, by custom, it should have passed to the prince of Tcher- 
nigof. Hence, for ages, there was implacable hatred between 
these two houses, and Russia was crimsoned with the blood 
of a hundred battle-fields. 

Nearly all the commerce of Russia, at this time, was car- 



THE INVASION OF GENGHIS KHAN. 113 

ried on between Kief and Constantinople by barges traversing 
the Dnieper and the Black Sea. These barges went strongly- 
armed as a protection against the barbarians who crowded the 
banks of the river. The stream, being thus the great thor- 
oughfare of commerce, received the popular name of The 
Road to Greece. The Russians exported rich furs in exchange 
for the cloths and spices of the East. As the Russian power 
extended toward the rising sun, theYolga and the Caspian 
Sea became the highways of a prosperous, though an inter- 
rupted, commerce. It makes the soul melancholy to reflect 
upon these long, long ages of rapine, destruction and woe. 
But for this, had man been true to himself, the whole of Rus- 
sia might now have been almost a garden of Eden, with every 
marsh drained, every stream bridged, every field waving with 
luxuriance, every deformity changed into an object of beauty, 
with roads and canals intersecting every mile of its territory, 
with gorgeous cities embellishing the rivers' banks and the 
mountain sides, and cottages smiling upon every plain. Man 
has no foe to his happiness so virulent and deadly as his 
brother man. The heaviest curse is human depravity. 

We now approach, in the early part of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, one of the most extraordinary events which has occurred 
in the history of man : the sweep of Tartar hordes over all of 
northern Asia and Europe, under their indomitable leader, 
Genghis Khan. 

In the extreme north of the Chinese empire, just south of 
Irkoutsk, in the midst of desert wilds, unknown to Greek or 
Roman, there were wandering tribes called Mogols. They 
were a savage, vagabond race, without any fixed habitations, 
living by the chase and by herding cattle. The chief of one 
of these tribes, greedy of renown and power, conquered sev- 
eral of the adjacent tribes, and brought them into very willing 
subjection to his sway. War was a pastime for their fierce 
spirits, and their bold chief led them to victory and abundant 
booty. This barbarian conqueror, Bayadour by name, died 



114 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

in the prime of life, surrendering his wealth and power to his 
son, Teraoutchin, then but thirteen years of age. This boy 
thus found himself lord of forty thousand families. Still he 
was but a subordinate prince or khan, owing allegiance to the 
Tartar sovereign of northern China. Brought up by his 
mother in the savage simplicity of a wandering shepherd's 
hut, he developed a character which made him the scourge of 
the world, and one of its most appalling wonders. The most 
illustrious monarchies were overturned by the force of his 
arms, and millions of men were brought into subjection to 
his power. 

At the death of his father, Bayadour, many of the subju- 
gated clans endeavored to break the yoke of the boy prince. 
Temoutchin, with the vigor and military sagacity of a veteran 
warrior, assembled an army of thirty thousand men, defeated 
the rebels, and plunged their leaders, seventy in number, each 
into a caldron of boiling water. Elated by such brilliant suc- 
cess, the young prince renounced allegiance to the Tartar sov- 
ereign and assumed independence. Terrifying his enemies 
by severity, rewarding his friends w^ith rich gifts, and over- 
awing the populace by claims of supernatural powers, this 
extraordinary young man commenced a career of conquest 
which the world has never seen surpassed. 

Assembling his ferocious hordes, now enthusiastically de- 
voted to his service, upon the banks of a rapid river, he took 
a solemn oath to share with them all the bitter and the sweet 
which he should encounter in the course of his life. The 
neighboring prince of Kerait ventured to draw the sword 
against him. He forfeited his head for his audacity, and his 
skull, trimmed with silver, was converted into a drinking cup. 
At the close of this expedition, his vast army were disposed 
in nine different camps, upon the head waters of the river 
Amour. Each division had tents of a particular color. On a 
festival day, as all were gazing with admiration upon their 
youthful leader, a hermit, by previous secret appointment, ap- 



THE INVASION OF GENGHIS KHAN. 115 

peared as a prophet from heaven. Approaching the prince, 
the pretended embassador from the celestial court, declared, 
in a loud voice, 

" God has given the whole earth to Temoutchin. As the 
sovereign of the world, he is entitled to the name of Genghis 
Khan {the great prince).'''' 

No one was disposed to question the divine authority of 
this envoy from the skies. Shouts of applause rent the air, 
and chiefs and warriors, with unanimous voice, expressed their 
eagerness to follow their leader wherever he might guide them. 
Admiration of his prowess and the terror of his arms spread 
far and wide, and embassadors thronged his tent from adja- 
cent nations, wishing to range themselves beneath his banners. 
Even the monarch of Thibet, overawed, sent messengers to 
offer his service as a vassal prince to Genghis Khan. 

The conqueror now made an irruption into China proper, 
and with his wolfish legions, clambering the world-renowned 
wall, routed all the armies raised to oppose him, and speedily 
was master of ninety cities. Finding himself encumbered 
with a crowd of prisoners, he selected a large number of the 
aged and choked them to death. The sovereign, thoroughly 
humiliated, purchased peace by a gift of live hundred young 
men, five hundred beautiful girls, three thousand horses and 
an immense quantity of silks and gold. Genghis Khan re- 
tired to the north with his treasures; but soon again re- 
turned, and laid siege to Pekin, the capital of the empire. 
With the energies of despair, though all unavailingly, the in- 
habitants attempted their defense. It was the year 1215 
when Pekin fell before the arms of the Mogol conquei-or. 
The whole city was immediately committed to flames, and 
tlie wasting conflagration raged for a whole month, when 
nothing was left of the once beautiful and populous city but 
a henp of ashes. 

Leaving troops in garrison throughout the subjugated 
country, the conqueror commenced his march towards the 



116 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

west, laden with the spoils of plundered cities. Like the 
rush of a torrent, his armies swept along until they entered 
the vast wilds of Turkoinania. Here the " great and the 
mighty Saladin" had reigned, extending his sway from the 
Caspian Sea to the Ganges, dictating laws even to the Caliph 
at Bagdad, who was the Pope of the Mohammedans. Ma- 
liomet II. now held the throne, a prince so haughty and war- 
like, that he arrogated the name of the second Alexander the 
Great. With two such spirits heading their armies, a hor- 
rible war ensued. The capital of this region, Bokhara, had 
attained a very considerable degree of civilization, and was 
renowned for its university, where the Mohammedan youth, 
of noble families, were educated. The city, after an unavail- 
ing attempt at defense, was compelled to capitulate. The 
elders of the metropolis brought the keys and laid them at 
the feet of the conqueror. Genghis Khan rode contemptu- 
ously on horseback into the sacred mosque, and seizing the 
Alcoran from the altar, threw it upon the floor and trampled 
it beneath the hoofs of his steed. The whole city was in- 
humanly reduced to ashes. 

From Bokhara he advanced to Samarcande. Tliis city 
was strongly fortified, and contained a hundred thousand 
soldiers within its walls, besides an immense number of ele- 
phants trained to tight. The city was soon taken. Thirty 
thousand were slain, and thirty thousand carried into per- 
petual slavery. All the adjacent cities soon shared a similar 
fate. For three years the armies of Genghis Kiian ravaged 
the whole country between the Aral lake and the Indus, with 
such fearful devastation that for six hundred years the re- 
gion did not recover from the calamity. Mahomet II., pur- 
sued by his indefatigable foe, fled to one of the islands of the 
Caspian Sea, where he perished in paroxysms of rage and 
despair. < 

Genghis Khan having thoroughly subdued this whole re- 
gion, now sent a division of his army, under two of his most 



THE INVASION OF GENGHIS KHAN. 117 

distinguished generals, across the Caspian Sea to subjugate 
the regions on the western shore. Here, as before, victory 
accompanied their standards, and, with merciless severity, 
they swept the whole country to the sea of Azof. The tid- 
mgs of their advance, so bloody, so resistless, spread into 
Russia, exciting universal terror. The conquerors, elated 
with success, rushed on over the plains of Russia, and were 
already pouring down into the valley of the Dnieper. Mstis- 
laf, prince of Galitch, already so renowned for his warlike 
exploits, was eager to measure arms with those soldiers, the 
terror of whose ravages now filled the world. He hurriedly 
assembled all the neighboring princes at Kief, and urged 
immediate and vigorous cooperation to repel the common foe. 
The Russian army was promptly rendezvoused on the banks 
of the Dnieper, preparatory to its march. Another large 
army was collected by the Russian princes who inhabited the 
valley of the Dniester. In a thousand barges they descended 
the river to the Black Sea. Then entering the Dnieper they 
ascended the stream to unite with the main army waiting im- 
patiently their arrival. 

On the 21st of May, the whole force was put in motion, 
and after a march of nine days, met the Tartar army on the 
banks of the river Kalets. The wavinac banners and the 
steeds of the Tartar host, covering the plains as far as the eye 
could extend, in numbers apparently countless, presented an 
appalling spectacle. Many of the Russian leaders were quite 
in despair ; others, young, ardent, inexperienced, were eager 
for the fight. The battle immediately commenced, and the 
combatants fought with all the ferocity which human ener- 
gies could engender. But the Russians were, in the end, 
routed entirely. The Tartars drove the bleeding fugitives in 
wild confusion before them back to the Dnieper. Never 
before had Russia encountered so frightful a disaster. The 
whole army was destroyed. Not one tenth of their number 
escaped that field of massacre. Seven princes, and seventy 



118 THE EMPIRE OP EUSSIA. 

of the most illustrious nobles were among the slain. The 
Tartars followed up their victory with their accustomed in- 
humanity, and, as if it were their intention to depopulate the 
country, swept it in all directions, putting the inhabitants in- 
discriminately to the sword. They acted upon the maxim 
which they ever proclaimed, " The conquered can never be 
the friends of the conquerors ; and the death of the one is 
essential to the safety of the other." 

The whole of southern Russia trembled with terror ; and 
men, women and children, in utter helplessness, with groans 
and cries fled to the churches, imploring the protection of 
God. That divine power which alone could aid them, inter- 
posed in their behalf. For some unknown reason, Genghis 
Khan recalled his troops to the shores of the Caspian, where 
this blood-stained conqueror, in the midst of his invincible 
armies, dictated laws to the vast regions he- had subjected to 
his will. This frightful storm having left utter desolation be- 
hind it, passed away as rapidly as it had approached. Scathed 
as by the lightnings of heaven, the whole of southern Rus- 
sia east of the Dnieper was left smoking like a furnace. 

The nominal king, Georges II., far distant in the northern 
realms of Souzdal and Vladimir, listened appalled to the re- 
ports of the tempest raging over the southern portion of the 
kingdom ; and when the dark cloud disappeared and its 
thunders ceased, he congratulated himself in having escaped 
its fury. After the terrible battle of Kalka, six years passed 
before the locust legions of the Tartars again made their 
appearance ; and Russia hoped that the scourge had disap- 
peared for ever. In the year 1227, Genghis Khan died. It 
has been estimated that the ambition of this one man cost the 
lives of between five and six millions of the human family. 
He nominated as his successor his oldest son Octal, and en- 
joined it upon him never to make peace but with vanquished 
nations. Ambitious of being the conqueror of the world, 
Octal ravaged with his armies the whole of northern China. 



1 



THE INVASION OF GENGHIS KHAN. 119 

In the heart of Tartary he reared his palace, embellished with 
the highest attainments of Chinese art. 

Raising an army of three hundred thousand men, the 
Tartar sovereign placed his nephew Bati in command, and 
ordered him to bring into subjection all the nations on the 
northern shores of the Caspian Sea, and then to continue his 
conquests throughout all the expanse of northern Russia. A 
bloody strife of three years planted his banners upon every 
cliff and through all the denies of the Ural mountains, and 
then the victor plunging down the western declivities of this 
great natural barrier between Europe and Asia, established 
his troops, for winter quarters, in the valley of the Yolga. To 
strike the region with terror, he burned the capital city of 
Bulgaria and put all the inhabitants to the sword. Early in 
the spring of the year 1238, with an army, say the ancient an- 
nalists, " as innumerable as locusts," he crossed the Yolga, and 
threading many almost impenetrable forests, after a march, in 
a north-west direction, of about four hundred miles, entered 
the province of Rezdan just south of Souzdal. He then sent 
an embassage to the king and his confederate princes, saying : 

" If you wish for peace with the Tartars you must pay us 
an annual tribute of one tenth of your possessions." 

The heroic reply w^as returned, 

" When you have slain us all, you can then take all that 
we have." 

Bati, at the head of his terrible army, continued his march 
through the populous province of Rezdan, burning every dwell- 
ing and endeavoring, with indiscriminate massacre, to exterm- 
inate the inhabitants. City after city fell before them until 
they approached the capital. This they besieged, first sur- 
rounding it with palisades that it might not be possible for 
any of the inhabitants to escape. The innumerable host 
pressed the siege day and night, not allowing the defenders 
one moment for repose. On the sixteenth day, after many 
had been slain and all the citizens were in utter exhaustion 



120 THE EMPIEE OF EUSSIA. 

from toil and sleeplessness, they commenced the final assault 
with ladders and battering rams. The walls of wood were 
soon set on fire, and, through flame and smoke, the demo- 
niac assailants rushed into the city. Indiscriminate massacre 
ensued of men, women and children, accompanied with the 
most revolting cruelty. The carnage continued for many 
hours, and, when it ceased, the city was reduced to ashes, and 
not one of its inhabitants was left alive. 

The conquerors then rushed on to Moscow. Here the tem- 
pest of battle raged for a few days, and then Moscow followed 
in the footsteps of Rezdan. 



CHAPTEH VII. 

THE SWAY OF THE TARTAR PRINCES. 

Prom 1238 to 1304. 

Eeteeat op Georges II. — Desolating Makch of the Taetaes Capture of Vla- 
dimir. — Fall of Moscow. — Utter Defeat of Georges. — Conflict at Tokjek.— 
March of the Tartars toward the South. — Subjugation of the Polovtsi.— 
Capture ok Kief. —Humiliation of Taroslaf. — Overthrow op the Eussian King- 
dom. — Haughtiness of the Tartars. — Eeign of Alexander. — Succession of Ya- 
eoslaf. — The Eeign of Vassull — State of Christianity. — Infamy op Andre. 
— Struggles with Dmitrl — Independence of the Principalities. — Death op 
Andre. 

THE king, Georges, fled from Moscow before it was invested 
by the enemy, leaving its defense to two of his sons. Re- 
tiring, in a panic, to the remote northern province of Yaroslaf, 
he encamped, with a small force, upon one of the tributaries 
of the Mologa, and sent earnest entreaties to numerous princes 
to hasten, with all the forces they could raise, and join his 
army. 

The Tartars from Moscow marched north-west some one 
hundred and fifty miles to the imperial city of Yladimir. 
They appeared before its walls on the 2d of February. On 
the evening of the 6th the battering rams and ladders were 
prepared, and it was evident that the storming of the city 
was soon to begin. The citizens, conscious that nothing 
awaited them but death or endless slavery, with one accord 
resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Accompanied 
by their wives and their children, they assembled in the 
churches, partook of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
implored Heaven's blessing upon them, and then husbands, 



122 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

brothers, fathers, took affecting leave of their families and 
repaired to the walls for the deadly strife. 

Early on the morning of the 1th. the assault commenced. 
The impetuosity of the onset was irresistible. In a few mo- 
ments the walls were scaled, the streets flooded with the foe, 
the pavements covered with the dead, and the city on fire 
in an hundred places. The conquerors did not wish to en- 
cumber themselves with captives. All were slain. Laden 
with booty and crimsoned with the blood of their foes, the 
victors dispersed in every direction, burning and destroying, 
but encountering no resistance. During the month they 
took fourteen cities, slaying all the inhabitants but such as 
they reserved for slaves. 

The monarch, Georges, was still upon the banks of the 
Site, near where it empties into the Mologa, when he heard 
the tidings of the destruction of Moscow and Vladimir, and 
of the massacre of his wife and his children. His eyes filled 
with tears, and in the anguish of his spirit he prayed that God 
would enable him to exemplify the patience of Job. Adver- 
sity develops the energies of noble spirits. Georges rallied 
his troops and made a desperate onset upon the foe as they 
approached his camp. It was the morning of the 4th of 
March. But again the battle was disastrous to Russia. Mogol 
numbers triumphed over Russian valor, and the king and 
nearly all his army were slain. Some days after the battle the 
bishop of Rostof traversed the field, covered with the bodies 
of the dead. There he discovered the corpse of the monarch, 
which he recognized by the clothes. The head had been 
severed from the body. The bishop removed the gory trunk 
of the prince and gave it respectful burial in the church of 
Notre Dame at Rostof. The head was subsequently found 
and deposited in the coffin with the body. 

The conquerors, continuing their march westerly one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, burning and destroying as they went, 
reached the populous city of Torjek. The despairing mhab- 



THE SWAY OF THE TARTAR PRINCES. 123 

Hants for fifteen days beat off the assailants. The city then 
fell ; its ruin was entire. The dwellings became but the fune- 
ral pyres for the bodies of the slain. The army of Bati then 
continued its march to lake Selisrer, the source of the Volg-a, 
within one hundred miles of the great city of ^N'ovgorod. 

" Villages disappeared," write the ancient annalists, " and 
the heads of the Russians fell under the swords of the Tartars 
as the grass falls before the scythe." 

Instead of pressing on to Novgorod, for some unknown 
reason Bati turned south, and, marching two hundred miles, 
laid siege to the strong fortress of Kozelsk, in the principality 
of Kalouga. The garrison, warned of the advance of the foe, 
made the most heroic resistance. For four weeks they held 
their assailants at bay, baffling every effort of the vast num- 
bers who encompassed them. A more determined and heroic 
defense was never made. At last the fortress fell, and not 
one soul escaped the exterminating sword. Bati, now satiated 
with carnage, retired, with his army, to the banks of the Don. 
Taroslaf, prince of Kief, and brother of Georges II., hoping 
that the dreadful storm had passed away, hastened to the 
smouldering ruins of Vladimir to take the title and the shad- 
owy authority of Grand Prince. Never before were more 
conspicuously seen the energies of a noble soul. At first it 
seemed that his reign could be extended only over gory 
corpses and smouldering ruins. Undismayed by the magni- 
tude of the disaster, he consecrated all the activity of his 
genius and the loftiness of his spirit to the regeneration of 
the desolated land. 

In the spacious valleys of the Don and its tributaries lived 
the powerful nation of the Polovtsi, who had often bid de- 
fiance to the whole strength of Russia. Kothian, their prince, 
for a short time made vigorous opposition to the march of the 
conquerors. But, overwhelmed by numbers, he was at length 
compelled to retreat, and, with his army of forty thousand 
men, to seek a refuge in Hungary. The country of the Polov- 



124 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

tsi was then abandoned to the Tartars. Having ravaged the 
central valleys of the Don and the Yolga, these demoniac 
warriors turned their steps again into southern Russia. The 
inhabitants, frantic with terror, fled from their line of march 
as lambs fly from wolves. The blasts of their trumpets and 
the clatter of their horses' hoofs were speedily resounding in 
the valley of the Dnieper. Soon from the steeples of Kief 
the banners of the terrible army were seen approaching from 
the east. They crossed the Dnieper and surrounded the im- 
perial city, which, for some time anticipating the storm, had 
been making preparation for the most desperate resistance. 
The ancient annalists say that the noise of their innumerable 
chariots, the lowing of camels and of the vast herds of cattle 
which accompanied their march, the neighing of horses and 
the ferocious cries of the barbarians, created such a clamor 
that no ordinary voice could be heard in the heart of the 
city. 

The attack was speedily commenced, and the walls were 
assailed with all the then-known instruments of war. Day 
and night, without a moment's intermission, the besiegers, 
like incarnate fiends, plied their works. The Tartars, as ever, 
were victorious, and Kief, with all its thronging population 
and all its treasures of wealth, architecture and art, sank in an 
abyss of flame and blood. It sank to rise no more. Though 
it has since been partially rebuilt, this ancient capital of the 
grand princes of Russia, even now presents but the shadow 
of its pristine splendor. 

Onward, still onward, was the cry of the barbarians. 

Leaving smoking brands and half-burnt corpses where the 
imperial city once stood, the insatiable Bati pressed on hun- 
dreds of miles further west, assailing, storming, destroying 
the provinces of Gallicia as far as southern Yladimir within 
a few leagues of the frontiers of Poland. Russia being thus 
entirely devastated and at the feet of the conquerors, Bati 
wheeled his army around toward the south and descended 



THE SWAY OF THE TARTAR PRINCES. 125 

into Hungary. Novgorod was almost the only important 
city in Russia which escaped the ravages of this terrible foe. 

Bati continued his career of conquest, and, in 1245, was 
almost undisputed master of Russia, of many of the Polish 
provinces, of Hungary, Croatia, Servia, Bulgaria on the Dan- 
ube, Moldavia and Wallachia. He then retm-ned to the YoJo-a 
and established himself there as permanent monarch over all 
these subjugated realms. No one dared to resist him. Bati 
sent a haughty message to the Grand Prince Yaroslaf at north- 
ern Vladimir, ordering him to come to his camp on the distant 
Volga. Yaroslaf, in the position in which he found himself— 
Russia being exhausted, depopulated, covered with ruins and 
with graves— did not dare disobey. Accompanied by sev- 
eral of his nobles, he took the weary journey, and humbly 
presented himself in the tent of the conqueror. Bati com- 
pelled the humiliated prince to send his young son, Con- 
stantin, to Tartary, to the palace of the grand khan Octai, who 
was about to celebrate, with his chiefs, the brilliant conquests 
his army had made in China and Europe. If the statements 
of the annalists of those days may be credited, so sumptuous 
a fete the world had never seen before. The guests, assem- 
bled in the metropolis of the khan, were innumerable. Ya- 
roslaf was compelled to promise allegiance to the Tartar 
chieftain, and all the other Russian princes, who had survived 
the general slaughter, were also forced to pay homage and 
tribute to Bati. 

After two years, the young prince, Constantin, returned 
from Tartary, and then Yaroslaf himself was ordered, with all 
his relatives, to go to the capital of this barbaric empire on 
the banks of the Amour, where the Tartar chiefs were to meet 
to choose a successor to Octai, who had recently died. With 
tears the unhappy prince bade adieu to his country, and, tra- 
versing vast deserts and immense regions of hills and valleys, 
he at length reached the metropolis of his cruel masters. 
Here he successfully defended himself against some accusa- 



126 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

tions which had been brought against him, and, after a deten- 
tion of several months, he was permitted to set out on his 
return. He had proceeded but a few hundred miles on the 
weary journey when he was taken sick, and died the 20th of 
September, 1246. The faithful nobles who accompanied him 
bore his remains to Yladimir, where they were interred. 

There was no longer a Russian kingdom. The country had 
lost its independence ; and the Tartar sway, rude, vacillating 
and awfully cruel, extended from remote China to the shores 
of the Baltic. The Roman, Grecian and Russian empires 
thus crumbling, the world was threatened with an universal 
inundation of barbarism. Russian princes, with more or less 
power ruled over the serfs who tilled their lands, but there 
was no recognized head of the once powerful kingdom, and 
no Russian prince ventured to disobey the commands even 
of the humblest captain of the Tartar hordes. 

While affairs were in this deplorable state, a Russian 
prince, Daniel, of Gallicia, engaged secretly, but with great 
vigor, in the attempt to secure the cooperation of the rest of 
Europe to emancipate Russia from the Tartar yoke. Greece, 
overawed by the barbarians, did not dare to make any hostile 
movement against them. Daniel turned to Rome, and prom- 
ised the pope, Innocent IV., that Russia should return to the 
Roman church, and would march under the papal flag if the 
pope would rouse Christian Euroj^e against the Tartars. 

The pope eagerly embraced these offers, pronounced 
Daniel to be King of Russia, and sent the papal legate to 
appoint Roman bishops over the Greek church. At the 
same time he wished to crown Daniel with regal splendor. 

"I have need," exclaimed the prince, "of an army, not of 
a crown. A crown is but a childish ornament when the yoke 
of the barbarian is galling our necks." 

Daniel at length consented, for the sake of its moral in- 
fluence, to be crowned king, and the pope issued his letters 
calling upon the faithful to unite under the banners of the 



THE SWAY OF THE TAETAR PRINCES. 127 

cross, to drive the barbarians from Europe. This union, how- 
ever, accomplished but little, as the pope was only anxious to 
bring the Greek church under the sway of Rome, and Daniel 
sought only military aid to expel the Tartars ; each endeavor- 
ing to surrender as little and to gain as much as possible. 

One of the Christian nobles endeavored to persuade Man- 
gou, a Tartar chieftain, of the superiority of the Christian re- 
ligion. The pagan replied ; 

" We are not ignorant that there is a God ; and we love 
him with all our heart. There are more ways of salvation 
than there are fingers on your hands. If God has given you 
the Bible, he has given us our wise men (Magi). But yoit do 
not obey the precepts of your Bible, while we are perfectly 
obedient to the instructions of our Magi, and never think of 
disputing their authority." 

The pride of these Tartar conquerors may be inferred 
from the following letter, sent by the great khan to Louis, 
King of France : 

"• In the name of God, the all powerful, I command you. 
King Louis, to be obedient to me. When the will of Heaven 
shall be accomplished— when the universe shall have recoonized 
me as its sovereign, tranquillity will then be seen restored to 
earth. But if you dare to despise the decrees of God, and to 
say that your country is remote, your mountains inaccessible, 
and your seas deep and wide, and that you fear not my dis- 
pleasure, then the Almighty will speedily show you how ter- 
rible is my power." 

After the death of Yaroslaf, his uncle Alexander assumed 
the sovereignty of the grand principality. He was a prince 
of much military renown. Bati, who was still encamped 
upon the banks of the Volga, sent to him a message as 
follows : 

*' Prince of Novgorod : it is well known by you that God 
has subjected to our sway innumerable peoples. If you wish 
to live in tranquillity, immP'Jktely come to me, in my tent, 



128 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

that you may witness the glory and the grandeur of the 
Moo^ols." 

Alexander obeyed with the promptness of a slave. Bati 
received the prince with great condescension, but commanded 
him to continue his journey some hundreds of leagues further 
to the east, that he might pay homage to the grand khan in 
Taitary. It was a terrible journey, beneath a blazing sun, 
over burning plains, whitened by the bones of those who had 
perished by the Avay. Those dreary solitudes had for ages 
been traversed by caravans, and instead of cities and villages, 
and the hum of busy life, the eye met only the tombs in which 
the dead mouldered ; and the silence of the grave oppressed 
the soul. 

In the year 1249, Alexander returned from his humiliating 
journey to Tartary. The khan was so well satisfied with his 
conduct, that he appointed him king of all the realms of 
southern Russia. The pope, now thoroughly alienated from 
Daniel, corresponded with Alexander, entreating him to bring 
the Greek church under the supremacy of Rome, and thus se- 
cure for himself the protection and the blessing of the father 
of all the faithful. Alexander returned the peremptory reply, 

" We wish to follow the true doctrines of the church. As 
for your doctrines, we have no desire either to adopt them or 
to know them." 

Alexander administered the government so much in ac- 
cordance with the will of his haughty masters, that the khan 
gradually increased his dominion. Bati, the Tartar chieftain, 
who was encamped with his army on the banks of the Volga 
and the Don, died in the year 1257, and his bloody sword, 
the only scepter of his power, passed into the hands of his 
brother Berki. Alexander felt compelled to hasten to the 
Tartar camp, with expressions of homage to the new captain, 
and with rich presents to conciliate his favor. Many of the 
Tartars had by this time embraced Christianity, and there 
were frequent intermarriages between the Russian nobles and 



THE SWAY OP THE TARTAR PRINCES. 129 

princesses of the Tartar race. It is a curious fact, that even 
then the Tartars were so conscious of the power of the clergy 
over the popular mind, that they employed all the arts of 
courtesy and bribes to secure their influence to hold the Rus- 
sians in subjection. 

The Tartars exacted enormous tribute from the subjugated 
country. An insurrection, headed by a son of Alexander, 
broke out at Novgorod. The grand prince, terrified in view 
of the Mogol wrath which might be expected to overwhelm 
him, arrested and imprisoned his son, who had countenanced 
the enterprise, and punished the nobles implicated in the move- 
ment with terrible severity. Some were hung ; others had 
their eyes plucked out and their noses cut off. But, unap- 
peased. by this fearful retribution, the Tartars were imme- 
diately on the march to avenge, with their own hands, the 
crime of rebellion. Their footsteps were marked with such 
desolation and cruelty that the Russians, goaded to despair, 
again ventured, like the crushed worm, an impotent resist- 
ance. Alexander himself was compelled to join the Tartars, 
and aid in cutting down his wretched countrymen. 

The Tartars haughtily entered Novgorod. Silence and 
desolation reigned through its streets. They went from 
house to house, extorting, as they well knew how, treasure 
which beggared families and ruined the city. Throughout 
all Russia the princes were compelled to break down the walls 
of their cities and to demolish their fortifications. In the 
year 1262, Alexander was alarmed by some indications of 
displeasure on the part of the grand khan, and he decided to 
take an immediate journey to the Mogol capital with rich 
presents, there to attempt to explain away any suspicions 
which might be entertained. His health was feeble, and suf- 
fered much from the exposures of the journey. He was de- 
tained in the Mogol court in captivity, though treated with 
much consideration, for a year. He then returned home, so 
crushed in health and spirits, that he died on the 14th of No- 

6* 



130 T H JS EilPIEE OF EUSSIA. 

vember, 1263. The prince was buried at Yladimir, and waa 
borne to the grave surrounded by the tears and lamentations 
of his subjects. He seems to have died the death of the 
righteous, breatljing most fervent prayers of penitence and of 
love. In the distressing situation in which his country was 
placed, he could do nothing but seek to alleviate its woe ; 
and to this object he devoted all the energies of his life. The 
name of Alexander Xevsky is still pronounced in Russia with 
love and admiration. His remains, after reposing in the 
church of Xoire Dame, at Yladimir, until tlie eighteenth cen- 
tury, were transported, by Peter the Great, to the banks of 
the Neva, to give renown to the capital which that illustrious 
monarch was rearinor there. 

Yaroslaf, of Tiver, succeeded almost immediately his father 
in the nominal sway of Russia. The new sovereign promised 
fealty to the Tartars, and feared no rival while sustained by 
their swords. His oppression becoming intolerable, the tocsin 
was sounded in the streets of Novgorod, and the whole popu- 
lace rose in insurrection. The movement was successful. Tlie 
favorites and advisers of Yaroslaf were put to death, and the 
prince himself was exiled. There is something quite refreshing 
in the energetic spirit with which the populace transmitted 
their sentence of repudiation to the discomfited prince, block- 
aded in his palace. The citizens met in a vast gathering in 
the church of St. Nicholas, and sent to him the following act 
of accusation : 

" Why have you seized the mansion of one of our nobles ? 
Why have you robbed others of their money ? Why have 
you driven from Novgorod strangers who were living peace- 
ably in the midst of us? Why do your game-keepers exclude 
us from the chase, and drive us from our own fields ? It is 
time to put an end to such violence. Leave us. Go where 
you please, but leave us, for we shall choose another j^rince." 

Yaroslaf, terrified and humiliated, sent his son to the 
public assembly Avith the assurance that he was ready to 



THE SWAY OF THE TARTAE PEIX^JES. 131 

conform to all their wishes, if they would return to their al- 
leo^iance. 

" It is too late," was the reply. *' Leave us immediately, 
or we shall be exposed to the inconvenience of driving you 
away." 

Yaroslaf immediately left the city and sought safety in 
exile. The Xovgorodians then offered the soiled and bat- 
tered crown to Dmitry, a nephew of the deposed prince. 
But Dmitry, fearing the vengeance of the Tartars, replied, 
"• I am not wilUng to ascend a throne from w^hich you have 
expelled my uncle." 

Yaroslaf immediately sent an embassador to the encamp- 
ment of the Tartars, w^iere they were ever eagerly waiting 
for any enterprise which promised carnage and plunder. The 
embassador, imploring their aid, said, 

" The Xovgorodians are your enemies. They have shame- 
fully expelled Yaroslaf, and thus treated your authority wdth 
insolence. They have deposed Yaroslaf, merely because he 
was faithful in collecting tribute for you." 

By such a crisis, republicanism was necessarily introduced 
in Novgorod. The people, destitute of a prince, and threat- 
ened by an approaching army, made vigorous efforts for 
resistance. The two armies soon met face to face, and they 
were on the eve of a terrible battle, when the worthy metro- 
politan bishop, Cyrille, interposed and succeeded in effecting 
a treaty which arrested the flow of torrents of blood. The 
Xovgorodians again accepted Yaroslaf, he making the most 
solemn promises of amendment. The embassadors of the 
Tartar khan conducted Yarsolaf again to the throne. 

The Tartars now embraced, almost simultaneously and uni- 
versally, the Mohammedan religion, and were inspired with 
the most fanatic zeal for its extension. Yaroslaf retained his 
throne only by employing all possible means to conciliate the 
Tartars. He died in the year 1272, as he was also on his 
return journey from a visit to the Tartar court. 



132 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Vassali, a younger brother of Yaroslaf, now ascended the 
throne, establishing himself at Vladimir. The grand ducliy 
of Lithuania, extending over a region of sixty thousand square 
miles, was situated just north of Poland. The Tartars, dis- 
satistied with the Lithuanians, prepared an expedition against 
them, and marching with a great army, compelled many of 
the Rus.^iau princes to follow their banners. Tlie Tartars 
spread desolation over the whole tract of country they tra- 
versed, and on their return took a careful census of the popu- 
lation of all the principalities of Russia, that they might decide 
upon the tribute to be imposed. The Russians were so broken 
in spirit that they submitted to all these indignities without a 
murmur. Still there vt'ere to be seen here and there indica- 
tions of discontent. An ecclesiastical council was held at 
Vladimir, in the year 1274. *A\\ the bishops of the north of 
Russia were assembled to rectify certain abuses which had 
crept into the church. A copy of the canons then adopted, 
written upon parchment, is still preserved in the Russian 
archives. 

" What a chastisement," exclaim the bishops, " have we 
received for our neglect of the true principles of Christianity ! 
God has scattered us over the whole surface of the globe. 
Our cities have fallen into the hands of the enemy. Our 
princes have perished on the field of battle. Our families 
have been dragged into slavery. Our temples have become 
the prey of destruction ; and every day we groan more and 
more heavily beneath the yoke which is imposed upon us." 

It was decreed in this council of truly Christian men, that, 
as a public expression of the importance of a holy life, none 
should be introduced into the ranks of the clergy but those 
whose m'orals had been irreproachable from their earliest 
infancy. " A single pastor," said the decree of this council, 
" faithfully devoted to his Master's service, is more precious 
than a thousand worldly priests." 

Vassali died in the year 1276, and was succeeded by a 



THE SWAY OF THE TARTAR PRINCES. 133 

prince of Yladimir, named Dmitri. lie immediately left his 
native principality and took up Lis reisidence in Novgorod, 
which city at this time seems to have been regarded as the 
capital of the subjugated and dishonored kingdom. The in- 
domitable tribes inhabiting the fastnesses of the Caucasian 
mountains had, thus far, maintained their independence. The 
Tartars called upon Russia for troops to aid in their subjuga- 
tion ; and four of the princes, one of whom, Andre of Goro- 
detz, was a brother of Dmitri the king, submissively led the 
required army into the Mogol encampment. 

Andre, by his flattery, his presents and his servile devo- 
tion to the interests of the khan, secured a decree of de- 
thronement against his brother and his own appointment as 
grand prince. Then, with a combined army of Tartars and 
Russians, he marched upon Novgorod to take possession of 
the crown. Resistance was not to be thought of, and Dmitri 
precipitately fled. Karamsin thus describes the sweep of this 
Tartar wave of woe : 

" The Mogols pillaged and burned the houses, the monas- 
teries, the churches, from which they took the images, the 
precious vases and the books richly bound. Large troops of 
the inhabitants were dragged into slavery, or fell beneath the 
sabers of the ferocious soldiers of the khan. The voungr sis- 
ters in the convents were exposed to the brutality of these 
monsters. The unhappy laborei-s, who, to escape death or 
captivity, had fled into the deserts, perished of exposure and 
starvation. Not an inhabitant was left who did not weep 
over tlie death of a father, a son, a brother or a friend." 

Thus Andre ascended the throne, and then returned the 
soldiers of the khan laden with the booty which they had so 
cruelly and iniquitously obtained. The barbarians, always 
greedy of rapine and blood, were ever delighted to find oc- 
casion to ravage the piincipalities of Russia. The Tartars, 
having withdrawn, Dmitri secured the cooperation of some 
powerful princes, drove his brother from Novgorod, and again 



134 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

grasped the scepter which his brother had wrested from him. 
The two brothers continued bitterly hostile to each other, 
and years passed of petty intrigues and with occasional scenes 
of violence and blood as Dmitri struggled to hold the crown 
which Andre as perseveringly strove to seize. Again Andre 
obtained another Mogol army, which swept Russia with fear- 
ful destruction, and, taking possession of Vladimir and Mos- 
cow, and every city and village on their way, plundering, burn- 
ing and destroying, marched resistlessly to Novgorod, and 
placed again the traitorous, blood-stained monster on the 
throne. 

Dmitri, abandoning his palaces and his treasures, fled to a 
remote principality, where he soon died, in the year 1294, an 
old man battered and wrecked by the storms of a life of woe. 
He is celebrated in the Russian annals only by the disasters 
which accompanied his reign. According to the Russian liis- 
torians, the infamous Andre, his elder brother being now dead, 
found himself legitimately the sovereign of Russia. As no 
one dared to dispute his authority, the ill-fated kingdom 
passed a few years in tranquillity. 

At length Daniel, prince of Moscow, claimed independence 
of the nominal king, or grand prince, as he was called. In 
fact, most of the principalities were, at this time, entirely 
independent of the grand prince of Novgorod, whose suprem- 
acy was, in general, but an em[)ty and powerless title. As 
Daniel was one of the nearest neighbors of Andr6, and reigned 
over a desolate and impoverished realm, the grand prince was 
disposed to bring him into subjection. But neither of the 
princes dared to march their armies without first appealing to 
their Mogol masters. Daniel sent an embassador to the Mo- 
gol camp, but Andre went in person with his young and beau- 
tiful wife. The khan sent his embassador to Vladimir, there 
to summon before him the two princes and their friends and 
to adjudge their cause. 

In the heat and bitterness of the debate, the two princes 



J. 



THE SWAY OF THE TARTAR PRINCES. 135 

drew their swords and fell upon each other. Their followers 
joined in the melee, and a scene of tumult and blood ensued 
characteristic of those barbaric times. The Tartar guard 
rushed in and sepaTated the combatants. The Tartar judge 
extorted rich presents from both of the appellants and settled 
the question by leaving it entirely unsettled^ ordering them 
both to go home. They separated like two boys who have 
been found quarreling, and who have both been soundly 
whipped for their pugnacity. In the autumn of the year 
1303 an assembly of the Russian princes was convened at Pe- 
reiaslavle, to which congress the imperious khan sent his com- 
mands. 

" It is my will," said the Tartar chief, *' that the principali- 
ties of Russia should henceforth enjoy tranquillity. I there- 
fore command all the princes to put an end to their dissen- 
sions and each one to content himself with the possessions and 
the power he now has." 

Russia thus ceased to be even nominally a monarchy, 
unless we regard the Khan of Tartary as its sovereign. It 
was a conglomeration of principalities, ruled by princes, with 
irresponsible power, but all paying tribute to a foreign des- 
pot, and obliged to obey his will whenever he saw fit to make 
that will known. Still there continued incessant tempests of 
civil war, violent but of brief duration, to which the khan 
paid no attention, he deeming it beneath his dignity to inter- 
meddle with such petty conflicts. 

Andre died on the 27th July, 1304, execrated by his co- 
temporaries, and he has been consigned to infamy by posterity. 
As he approached the spirit land he was tortured with the 
dread of the scenes which he might encounter there. His 
crimes had condemned thousands to death and other thou- 
sands to live-long woe. He sought by priestcraft, and pen- 
ances, and monastic vows, and garments of sackcloth, to efface 
the stains of a soul crimsoned with crime. He died, and his 
guilty spirit passed away to meet God in judgment. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

RESURRECTION OP THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY. 

From 1304 to 1380. 

Defeat of Gf,or6es and the Tartars — Indignation of the Khan. — Michel Sum- 
moned TO THE Horde. — His Trial and Execution. — Assassination of Georoes.— 
Execution of Dmitri. — Repulse and Death of the Embassador of the Khan. — 
Vengeance of the Khan. — Increasing Prosperity of Eussia. — The Great 
Plague. — Supremacy of Simon. — Anarchy in the Horde. — Plague and Con- 
flagration. — The Tartars Repulsed. — Eeconquest of Bulgaria. — The Great 
Battle of Koulikof. — Utter Kout of the Tartars. 

THE Tartars, now fierce Mohararaedans, began to oppress 
severely, particularly in Kief, the Christians. The metro- 
politan bishop of this ancient city, with the whole body of the 
clergy, pursued by persecution, fled to Vladimir ; and others 
of the Christians of Kief were scattered over the kingdom. 

The death of Andre was as fatal to Russia as had been 
his reign. Two rival princes, Michel of Tver, and Georges 
of Moscow, grasped at the shadow of a scepter which had 
fallen from his hands. In consequence, war and anarchy for 
a long time prevailed. At length, Michel, having appealed 
to the Tartars and gained their support, ascended the frail 
throne. But a fierce war now raged between ISTovgorod and 
Moscow. In the prosecution of this war, Georges obtained 
some advantage which led Michel to appeal to the khan. 
The prince of Moscow was immediately summoned to appear 
in the presence of the Tartar chieftain. By the most ignoble 
fawning and promises of plunder, Georges obtained the sup- 
port of the khan, and returning with a Tartar horde, cruelly 
devastated the principality of his foe. Michel and all his sub- 
jects, roused to the highest pitch of indignation, maiched to 



EESUERECTION OF THE MONARCHY. 137 

meet the enemy. The two armies encountered each other a 
few leagues from Moscow. The followers of Michel, fighting 
w^th the energies of despair, were unexpectedly successful, 
and Georges, with his Russian and Tartar troops, was thor- 
oughly defeated. 

Kavgadi, the leader of the Tartar allies of Georges, was 
taken prisoner. Michel, appalled by the thought of the 
vengeance he might anticipate from the great khan, whose 
power he had thus ventured to defy, treated his captive, 
Kavgadi, with the highest consideration, and immediately 
set him at liberty loaded with presents. Georges, accompa- 
nied by Kavgadi, repaired promptly to the court of the 
khan, Usbeck, who was then encamped, with a numerous 
army, upon the shores of the Caspian Sea. Soon an embas- 
sador of the khan arrived at Vladimir, and informed Michel 
that Usbeck was exasperated against him to the highest de- 
gree. 

" Hasten," said he, " to the court of the great khan, or 
within a month you will see your provinces inundated by his 
troops. Think of your peril, when Kavgadi has informed 
Usbeck that you have dared to resist his authority." 

Terrified by these words, the nobles of Michel entreated 
him not to place himself in the power of the khan, but to 
allow some one of them to visit the horde^ as it was then 
called, in his stead, and endeavor to appease the wrath of the 
monarch. 

" ISTo," replied the high-minded prince ; " Usbeck demands 
my presence not yours. Far be it from me, by my disobedi- 
ence, to expose my country to ruin. If I resist the commands 
of the khan, my country will be doomed to new woes ; thou- 
sands of Christians will perish, the victims of his fury. It is 
impossible for us to repel the forces of the Tartars. What 
other asylum is there then for me but death ? Is it not 
better for me to die, if I may thus save the lives of my faith- 
ful subjects ?" 



138 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

He made liis will, divided his estates among his sons, and 
entreating them ever to be faithful to the dictates of virtue, 
bade them an eternal adieu. Michel encountered the khan 
near the mouth of the Don, as it enters the Sea of Azof. 
Usbeck was on a magnificent hunting excursion, accompanied 
by his chieftains and his army. For six weeks he did not 
deign to pay any attention to the Russian prince, not even 
condescending to order him to be guarded. The rich pres- 
ents Michel had brought, in token of homage, were neither 
received nor rejected, but were merely disregarded as of no 
moment whatever. 

At length, one morning, suddenly, as if recollecting some- 
thing which had been forgotten, Usbeck ordered his lords to 
summon Michel before them and adjudge his cause. A tent 
was spread as a tribunal of justice, near the tent of the khan ; 
and the unhappy prince, bound with cords, was led before his 
judges. He was accused of the unpardonable crime of having 
drawn his sword against the soldiers of the khan. No justifi- 
cation could be offered. Michel Avas cruelly fettered with 
chains and thrown into a dungeon. An enormous collar of 
iron was riveted around his neck. 

Usbeck then set out for the chase, on an expedition which 
was to last for one or two months. The annals of the time 
describe this expedition with great particularity, presenting a 
scene of pomp almost surpassing credence. Some allow^ance 
must doubtless be made for exaggeration ; and yet there is a 
minuteness of detail which, accompanied by corroborative 
evidence of the populousness and the power of these Tartar 
tribes, invests the narrative with a good degree of authen- 
ticity. We are informed that several hundreds of thousands 
of men were in movement; that each soldier was clothed in 
rich uniform and mounted upon a beautiful horse ; that mer- 
chants transported, in innumerable chariots, the most precious 
fabrics of Greece and of the Indies, and that luxury and 
gayety reigned throughout the immense camp, which, in the 



RESURRECTION OF THE MONARCHY. 139 

midst of savage deserts, presented the aspect of brilliant and 
populous cities. Michel, who was awaiting his sentence from 
Usbeck, was dragged, loaded with chains, in the train of the 
horde. Georges w^as in high favor with the khan, and was 
importunately urging the condemnation of his rival. 

With wondei'ful fortitude the prince endured his humili- 
ation and tortures. The nobles who had accompanied him 
were plunged into inconsolable grief. Michel endeavored to 
solace them. He manifested, through the whole of this ter- 
rible trial, the spirit of the Christian, passing whole nights in 
prayer and in chanting the Psalms of David. As his hands 
were bound, one of his pages held the sacred book before 
him. His faithful followers urged him to take advantage of 
the confusion and tumult of the camp to effect his escape. 
" Never," exclaimed Michel, " will I degrade myself by flight. 
Moreover, should I escape, that would save me only, not my 
country. God's will be done." 

The horde was now encamped among the mountains of 
Circassi.i. It was the 22d of November, 1319, when, just 
after morning prayers, which were conducted by an abbe and 
two priests, who accompanied the Russian prince, Michel was 
informed that Usbeck had sentenced him to death. He im- 
mediately called his young son Constantin, a lad tw^elve years 
of age, into his presence, and gave his last directions to his 
wife and children. 

" Say to them," enjoined this Christian prince, " that I go 
down into the tomb cherishing for them the most ardent af- 
fection. I recommend to their care the generous nobles, the 
faithful servants who have manifested so much zeal for iheir 
sovereign, both when he was upon the throne and when in 
chains." 

These thoughts of home overw^helmed him, and, for a mo- 
ment losing his fortitude, he burst into tears. Causing the 
Bible to be opened to the Psalms of David, which, in all ages, 
have been the great fountain of consolation to the afflicted, 



140 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

he read from the fifty-sixth Psalm, fifth verse, " Fearftil- 
ness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath over- 
whelmed me." 

" Prince," said the abbe, " in the same Psalm with which 
you are so familiar, are the words, * Cast thy burden upon the 
Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the 
righteous to be moved.' " 

Michel simply replied by quoting again from the same in- 
spired page : *' Oh that I had wings like a dove ; for then 
would I fly away and be at rest." 

At that moment one of the pages entered the tent, pale 
and trembling, and informed that a great crowd of people 
were approaching. *' I know why they are coming," said the 
prince, and he immediately sent his young son away on a mes- 
sage, that the child might not witness the cruel execution of 
his father. Two brawny barbarians entered the tent. As the 
prince was fervently praying, they smote him down with clubs, 
trampled him beneath their feet, and then plunged a poignard 
into his heart. The crowd which had followed the execu- 
tioners, according to their custom rushed into the royal tent 
for pillage. The gory body was left in the hands of the Ru-s- 
sian nobles. They enveloped the remains in precious clothes, 
and bore them with affectionate care back to Moscow. 

Georges, now confirmed in the dignity of grand prince by 
the khan, returned to Yladimir, where he established his gov- 
ernment, sending his brother to Novgorod to reign over that 
principality in his name. Dmitri, and others of the sons of 
Michel, for several years waged implacable warfare against 
Georges, with but little success. The khan, however, did not 
deiorn to interfere in a strife which caused him no trouble. But 
in the year 1325 Georges again went to the horde on the 
eastern banks of the Caspian. At the same time, Dmitri ap- 
peared in the encampment. Meeting Georges accidentally, 
whom he justly regarded as the murderer of his flither, he 
drew his sword, and plunged it to the hilt in the lieart of the 



RESURRECTION OP THE MONARCHY. 141 

grand prince. The khan, accustomed to such deeds of vio- 
lence, was not disposed to punish the son who had thus 
avenged the death of his father. But the friends of Georges 
so importunately urged that to pardon such a crime would be 
an ineffaceable stain upon his honor, would be an indication 
of weakness, and would encourage the Russian princes in the 
commission of other outrages, that after the lapse of ten 
months, during which time Dmitri had been detained a cap- 
tive, Usbeck ordered his execution, and the unfortunate 
prince was beheaded. Dmitri was then but twenty-seven 
years of age. 

And yet Usbeck seems to have had some regard for the 
cause of the young prince, for he immediately appointed 
Alexander, a brother of Dmitri, and son of Michel, to suc- 
ceed Georges in the grand principality. The Novgorodians 
promptly received him as their ruler. Affairs were in this 
gtate when, at the close of the summer of 1327, an embassa- 
dor of Usbeck appeared, with a band of Tartars, and entered 
the royal city of Tver, which was the residence of Alexander. 
The principality of the Tver was spread along the head waters 
of the Volga, just north of the principality of Moscow. The 
report spread through the city that the Mogol embassador, 
Schevkal, who was a zealous Mohammedan, had come to con- 
vert the Russians to Mohammedanism, that he intended the 
death of Alexander, to ascend the throne himself, and to dis- 
tribute the cities of the principality to his followers. 

The Tverians, in a paroxysm of terror and despair, rallied 
for the support of their prince and their religion. In a terrible 
tumult all the inhabitants rose and precipated themselves upon 
the embassador and his valiant body guard. From morning 
until night the battle raged in the streets of Tver. The Tar- 
tars, overpowered by numbers, and greatly weakened by 
losses during the day, took refuge in a palace. The citizens 
set the palace on fire, and every Tartar perished, either con 
•jumed by the flames or cut down by the Russians. 



142 THE EMPIBE OF RUSSIA. 

When TJsb^ck heard of this event, he was, at first, stupe- 
fied by the audacity of the deed. He imagined that all Russia 
was in the conspiracy, and that there was to be a general 
rising to throw off the Tartar yoke. Still Usbeck, with his 
characteristic sagacity, decided to employ the Russians to 
subdue the Russians. He at once deposed and outlawed 
Alexander, and declared Jean Danielovitch, of Moscow, to be 
grand prince, who promised the most obsequious obedience 
to his wishes. At the same time he sent an army of fifty 
thousand Tartars to cooperate with the Russian army, which 
Jean Danielovitch was commanded to put in motion for the 
invasion of the principality of Tver. It was in vain to think 
of resistance, and Alexander fled. The invading army, with 
awful devastation, ravaged the principality. Multitudes were 
slain. Others were dragged into captivity. The smoking 
ruins of the cities and villages of Tver became the monument 
of the wrath of the khan. Alexander, pursued by the implaca- 
ble wrath of Usbeck, was finally taken and beheaded. 

But few particulars are known respecting the condition of 
southern Russia at this time. The principalities were under 
the government of princes who were all tributary to the Tar- 
tars, and yet these princes were incessantly quarreling with 
one another, and the whole country was the scene of violence 
and blood. 

The energies of the Tartar horde were now engrossed by 
internal dissensions and oriental wars, and for many years, the 
conquerors still drawing their annual tribute from the country, 
but in no other way interfering with its concerns, devoted all 
their energies to conspiracies and bloody battles among them- 
selves. Moscow now became the capital of the country, and 
under the peaceful reign of Jean, increased rapidly in wealth 
and splendor. Jean, acting professedly as the agent of Us- 
beck, extorted from many of the principalities double tribute, 
one half of which he furtively appropriated to the increase of 
the wealth, splendor and power of his own dominions. His 



BESURRECTION OF THE MONARCHY. 143 

reign was on the whole one of the most prosperous Russia 
had enjoyed for ages. Agriculture and commerce flourished. 
The Volga was covered with boats, conveying to the Caspian 
the furs and manufactures of the iSJ^orth, and laden, on their 
return, with the spices and fabrics of the Indies. On the 31st 
of March, 1340, Jean died. As he felt the approach of death 
his spirit was overawed by the realities of the eternal world. 
Laying aside his regal robes he assumed the dress of a monk, 
and entering a monastery, devoted his last days zealously to 
prayer. His end was peace. 

Immediately after his death there were several princes 
who were ambitious of grasping the scepter which he had 
dropped, and, as Usbeck alone could settle that question, 
there was a general rush to the horde. Simeon, the eldest 
son of Jean, and his brothers, were among the foremost 
who presented themselves in the tent of the all-powerful khan. 
Simeon eloquently urged the fidelity with which his father 
had always served the Mogol prince, and he promised, in his 
turn, to do every thing in his power to merit the favor of the 
khan. So successfully did he prosecute his suit that the khan 
declared him to be grand prince, and commanded all his rivals 
to obey him as their chief. 

The manners of the barbarian Mogols had, for some time, 
been assuming a marked change. They emerged from their 
native wilds as fierce and untamed as wolves. The herds of 
cattle they drove along with them supplied them with food, 
and the skins of these animals supplied them with clothing 
and with tents. Their home was wherever they happened to 
be encamped, but, having reached the banks of the Black Sea 
and the fertile valleys of the Volga and the Don, they became 
acquainted with the luxuries of Europe and of the more civ- 
ilized portions of Asia. Commerce enriched them. Large 
cities were erected, embellished by the genius of Grecian and 
Italian architects. Life became more desirable, and the 
wealthy chieftains, indulging in luxury, were less eager to 



144 THE EMPIRE OF BUSSIA, 

encounter the exposure and perils of battle. The love of 
wealth now became with them a ruling passion. For gold 
they would grant any favors. The golden promises of Simeon 
completely won the heart of Usbeck, and the young prince 
returned to Moscow flushed with success. He assumed such 
airs of superiority and of power as secured for him the title oi 
The Superb. He caused himself to be crowned king, with 
much religious pomp, in the cathedral of Vladimir. Novgo- 
rod manifested some resistance to his assumptions. He in- 
stantly invaded the principality, hewed down all opposition, 
and punished his opj)onents with such severity that there was 
a simultaneous cry for mercy. Rapidly he extended his 
power, and the fragmentary principahties of Russia began 
again to assume the aspect of concentration and adhesion. 

Ere two years had elapsed, Usbeck, the khan, died. This 
remarkable man had been, for some time, the friend and the 
ally of Pope Beniot XII., who had hoped to convert him to 
the Christian religion. The khan had even allowed the pope 
to introduce Christianity to the Tartar territories bordering 
on the Black Sea. Tchanibek, the oldest son of Usbeck, upon 
the death of his father, assassinated his brothers, and thus 
attained the supreme authority. He was a zealous Moham- 
medan, and commenced his reign by commanding all the 
princes of the principalities of Russia to hasten to the horde 
and prostrate themselves, in token of homage, before his 
throne. The least delay would subject the offender to confis- 
cation and death. Simeon was one of the first to do homage 
to the new khan. He was received with great favor, and dis- 
missed confirmed in all his privileges. 

In the year 1346, one of the most desolating plagues re- 
corded in history, commenced its ravages in China, and swept 
over all Asia and nearly all Europe. The disease is recorded 
in the ancient annals under the name of Black Death. Thir- 
teen millions of the population were, in the course of a few 
months, swept into the grave. Entire cities were depopu- 



RESURRECTION OP THE MONARCHY. 145 

lated, and the dead by thousands lay unburied. The pestilence 
swept with terrible fury the encampments of the Tartars, and 
weakened that despotic power beyond all recovery. But one 
third of the population of the principalities of Pskof and of 
Novgorod were left living. At London fifty thousand were 
interred in a single cemetery. The disease commenced with 
swellings on the fleshy parts of the body, a violent spitting of 
blood ensued, which was followed by death the second or 
third day. 

It is impossible, according to the ancient annalists, to imag- 
ine a spectacle so terrible. Young and old, fathers and chil- 
dren, were buried in the same grave. Entire families disap- 
peared in a day. Each curate found, every morning, thirty 
dead bodies, often more, in his church. Greedy men at first 
offered their services to the dying, hoping to obtain their 
estates, but when it was found that the disease was commu- 
nicated by touch, even the most wealthy could obtain no 
aid. The son fled from the father. The brother avoided the 
brother. Still there were not a few examples of the most 
generous and self sacrificing devotion. Medical skill was of 
no avail whatever, and the churches were thronged with the 
multitudes who, in the midst of the dying and the dead, were 
crying to God for aid. Multitudes in their terror bequeathed 
all their property to the church, and sought refuge in the 
monasteries. It truth, it appeai-ed as if Heaven had pro- 
nounced the sentence of immediate death upon the whole 
human family. 

Five times, during his short reign, Simeon was com- 
pelled to repair to the horde, to remove suspicions and 
appease displeasure. He at length so far ingratiated him- 
self mto favor with the khan, that the Tartar sovereign con- 
ferred upon him the title of Grand Prince of all the JRussias. 
The death of Simeon in the year 1353, caused a general rush 
of the princes of the several principalities to the Tartar 
horde, each emulous of being appointed his successor. Tchan- 



146 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

ibek, the khan, after suitable deliberation, conferred the dig- 
nity upon Jean Ivanovitch of Moscow. His reign of six 
years was disturbed by a multiplicity of intestine feuds, but 
no events occurred worthy of record. He died in 1359. 

Again the Russian princes crowded to the horde, as, in 
every age, office seekers have thronged the court. The khan, 
after due deliberation, conferred the investiture of the grand 
principality upon Dmitri of Souzdal, though the appointment 
was received with great dissatisfaction by the other princes. 
But now the power of the Tartars was rapidly on the decHne. 
Assassination succeeded assassination, one chieftain after an- 
other securing the assassination of his rival and with bloody 
hands ascending the Mogol throne. The swords of the Mo- 
gol warriors were turned against each other, as rival chieftains 
rallied their followers for attack or defense. Civil war raged 
among these fierce bands with most terrible ferocity. Famine 
and pestilence followed the ravages of the sword. 

While the horde was in this state of distraction, antago- 
nistic khans began to court the aid of the Russian princes, and 
a successftil Tartar chieftain, who had poignarded his rival, and 
thus attained the throne, deposed Dmitri of Souzdal, and de- 
clared a young prince, Dmitri of Moscow, to be sovereign of 
Russia. But as the khan, whose whole energies were re- 
quired to retain his disputed throne, could send no army into 
Russia to enforce this decree, Dmitri of Souzdal paid but 
little attention to the paper edict. Immediately the Russian 
princes arrayed themselves on different sides. The conflict 
was short, but decisive, and the victorious prince of Moscow 
was crowned as sovereign. The light of a resurrection morn- 
ing, was now dawning upon the Russian monarchy. There 
were, fortunately, at this time, two rival khans beyond the 
waves of the Caspian opposing each other with bloody cime- 
ters. The energetic young prince, by fortunate marriage, and 
by the success of his arms, rapidly extended his authority. 
But again the awful plague swept Russia. The annalists of 



BESUEBECTIOK OF THE MONARCHY. 14? 

those days thus describe the symptoms and the character of 
the malady : 

^ "One felt hhnself suddenly struck as by a knife pluno-ed 
into the heart through the shoulder blades or between ^he 
two shoulders. An intense fire seemed to burn the entrails • 
blood flowed freely from the throat ; a violent perspiration 
ensued, followed by severe chHls; tumors gathered upon the 
neck, the hip, under the arms or behind the shoulder blades 
The end was invariably the same-death, inevitable, speedy, 
but terrible." "^ 

Out of a hundred persons, frequently not more than ten 
would be left alive. Moscow was almost depopulated. In 
Smolensk but five individuals escaped, and they were com- 
pelled to abandon the city, the houses and the streets being 
encumbered with the putrefying bodies of the dead.* Just 
before this disaster, Moscow suffered severely from a confla- 
gration. The imperial palace and a large portion of the city 
were laid in ashes. The prince then resolved to construct a 
Kremhn of stone, and he laid the foundations of a gorgeous 
palace m the year 1367. 

Dmitri now began to bid defiance to the Tartars, doubly 
weakened by the sweep of the pestilence and by internal dis- 
cord. There were a few minor conflicts, in which the Rus- 
sians were victorious, and, elated by success, they began to 
rally for a united effort to shake off the degrading Moaol 
yoke Three bands of the Tartars were encamped at t°he 
mouth of the Dnieper. The Russians descended the river in 
barges, assailed them with the valor which their fathers had 
displayed, and drove the pagans, in wild rout, to the shores 
of the Sea of Azof. 

The Tartars, astounded at such unprecedented audacity 
torgetting, for the time, their personal animosities, collected 
a large army, and commenced a march upon Moscow. The 

MM. St. Thomas et Jaufi&-et Tome cinquieme, p. 10. 



148 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

grand prince dispatched his couriers in every direction to 
assemble the princes of the empire with all the soldiers they 
could bring into the field. Again the Tartars were repulsed. 
For many years the Tartars had been in possession of Bul- 
garia, an extensive region east of the Volga. In the year 
1376, the grand prince, Dmitri, fitted out an expedition for 
the reconquest of that country. The Russian arms were sig- 
nally successful. The Tartars, beaten on all hands, their 
cities burned, their boats destroyed, were compelled to sub- 
mit to the conqueror. A large sum of money was extorted 
from them to be distributed among the troops. They were 
forced to acknowledge themselves, in their turn, tributary to 
Russia, and to accept Russian magistrates for the govern- 
ment of their cities. 

Encouraged by this success, the grand prince made ar- 
rangements for other exploits. A border warfare ensued, 
which was continued for several years with alternating suc- 
cess and with great ferocity. IsTeither party spared age or 
sex, and cities and villages were indiscriminately committed 
to the flames. Russia was soon alarmed by the rumor that 
Mamai, a Tartar chieftain, was approaching the frontiers of 
Russia with one of the lai-gest armies the Mogols had ever 
raised. This intelligence roused the Russians to the highest 
pitch of energy to meet their foes in a decisive battle. An 
immense force was soon assembled at Moscow from all parts 
of the kingdom. After having completed all his arrange- 
ments, Dmitri, with his chief captains, repaired to the church 
of the Trinity to receive the benediction of the metropolitan 
bishop. 

"You will triumph," said the venerable ecclesiastic, "but 
only after terrible carnage. You will vanquish the enemy, 
but your laurels will be sprinkled with the blood of a vast 
number of Christian heroes." 

The troops, accompanied by ecclesiastics who bore the 
banners of the cross, passed out at the gate of the Kremlin. 



EESTJE RE C TI ON OF THE MONAECHY. 149 

A.S the majestic host defiled frorn the city, the grand prince 
passed the hours in the church of Saint Michael, kneeUng 
upon the tomb of his ancestors, fervently imploring the bless- 
ing of Heaven. Animated by the strength Avhich prayer ever 
gives, he embraced his wife, saying, " God will be our de- 
fender," and then, mounting his horse, placed himself at the 
head of his army. It was a beautiful summer's day, calm, 
serene and cloudless, and the whole army were sanguine in the 
hope that God would smile upon their enterprise. Marching 
nearly south, along the valley of the Moskwa, they reached, 
in a few days, the large city of Kolomna, a hundred miles 
distant, on the banks of the Oka. Here they were joined by 
several confederate princes, with their contingents of troops, 
swelling the army to one hundred and fifty thousand men. 
Seventy-five thousand of these were cavalry, superbly mount- 
ed. Never had Russia, even in her days of greatest splendor, 
witnessed a more magnificent array. 

Mamai, the Tartar khan, had assembled the horde, in num- 
bers which he deemed overwhelming, on the waters of the 
Don. Resolved not to await the irruption of the foe, on the 
20th of August, Dmitri, with his army, crossed the Oka, and 
pressed forward towards the valley of the Don. They reached 
this stream on the 6th of September. Soon detachments of 
the advanced guards of the two armies met, and several skir- 
mishes ensued. Dmitri assembled his generals in solemn con- 
clave, and saying to them, *' The hour of God's judgment has 
sounded," gave minute directions for the conflict. Aided by a 
dense fog, which concealed their operations from the view of 
the enemy, the army crossed the Don, the cavalry fording the 
stream, while the infantry passed over by a hastily-constructed 
bridge. Dmitri deployed his columns in battle array upon the 
vast plain of Koulikof. A mound of earth was thrown up, that 
Dmitri, upon its summit, might overlook the whole plain. 

As the Russian prince stood upon this pyramid and con- 
templated his army, there was spread before him such a spec- 



loO. THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

tacle as mortal eyes have seldom seen. A hundred and fifty- 
thousand men Avere marshaled on the plain. It was the morn- 
ing of the 8th of September, 1380. Thousands of banners 
fluttered in the breeze. The polished armor of the cavaliers, 
cuirass, spear and helmet, glittered in the rays of the sun. 
Seventy-five thousand steeds, gorgeously caparisoned, were 
neighing and prancing over the verdant savanna. The sol- 
diers, according to their custom, shouted the prayer, which 
rose like the roar of many waters, " Great God, grant to our 
sovereign the victory." The whole sublime scene moved the 
soul of Dmitry to its profoundest depths ; and as he reflected 
that in a few hours perhaps the greater portion of that multi- 
tude might lie dead upon the field, tears gushed from his eyes, 
and kneeling upon the summit of the mound, in the presence 
of the whole army, he extended his hands towards heaven in 
a fervent prayer that God would protect Russia and Chris- 
tianity from the heel of the infidel. Then, mounting his horse, 
he rode along the ranks, exclaiming, 

" My brothers dearly beloved ; my faithful companions in 
arms : by your exploits this day you will live for ever in the 
memory of men ; and those of you who fall will find, beyond 
the tomb, the crown of martyrs." 

The Tartar host approached upon the boundless plain 
slowly and cautiously, but in numbers even exceeding those 
of the Russians. Notwithstanding the most earnest remon- 
strances of his generals, Dmitri led the charge, exposing him- 
self to every peril which the humblest soldier was called to 
meet. 

" It is not in me," said he, " to seek a place of safety while 
crying out to you, ' J/y brothers, let us die for our country !^ 
My actions shall correspond wdth my words. I am your chief. 
I will be your guide. I will go in advance, and, if I die, it is 
for you to avenge me." 

Again ascending the mound, the king, with a loud voice, 
read the forty-sixth Psalm : " God is our refuge and strength, 



RESURRECTION OF THE MONARCHY. 15J 

a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear 
though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be 
carried into the midst of the sea." The battle was imme- 
diately commenced, with ferocity on both sides which has 
probably never been surpassed. For three hours the two 
armies were blended in a hand to hand fight, spreading over 
a space seven miles in length. Blood flowed in torrents, and 
the sod was covered with the slain. Here the Russians were 
victorious and the Tartars fled before them. There the Tar- 
tars, with frenzied shouts, chased the Russians in awful rout 
over the plain. Dmitri had stationed a strong reserve behind 
a forest. When both parties were utterly exhausted, sud- 
denly this reserve emerged from their retreat and rushed upon 
the foe. Vladimir, the brother of Dmitri, led the charge. 
The Mogols, surprised, confounded, overwhelmed and utterly 
routed, in the wildest confusion, and with outcries which rent 
the heavens, turned and fled. " The God of the Christians 
has conquered," exclaimed the Tartar chief, gnashing his teeth 
in despair. The Tartars were hewed down by saber strokes 
from unexhausted arms, and trampled beneath the hoofs of 
the war horse. The entire camp of the horde, with immense 
booty of tents, chariots, horses, camels, cattle and precious 
commodities of every kind, fell into the hands of the captors. 
The valorous prince Vladimir, the hero of the day, re- 
turned to the field of battle, which his cavalry had swept like 
a tornado, and planting his banner upon a mound, with signal 
trumpets, summoned the whole victorious host to rally around 
it. The princes, the nobles, from every part of the extended 
field, gathered beneath its folds. But to their consternation, 
the grand prince, Dmitri, was missing. Amidst the surgings 
of the battle he had disappeared, and was nowhere to be 
found. 



CHAPTER IX 

DMITRI, YASSALT, AND THE MOGOL TAMERLANE. 
From 1380 to 1462. 

Eeoovebt of Dmitei "Sevt Taktae Intaston. — The Assattlt and Captxtbe of 

Moscow. — Netv Subjugatiok of the Eussians. — ^Lithuania Embraces Cheis- 
TiANiTY. — Escape of Vassali Feom the Horde. — Death of Dmitel — Tamf.e- 
lane. — His Origin and Career — His Intasion of India. — Defeat of Baja- 
ZET. — Tamerlane Invades Eitssia. — Preparations for Eesistance. — Sudden 
Eetreat of the Tartars. — Death of Yassali. — Accession of Yassali Yas- 
siLicviTCH. — The Disputed Succession. — Appeal to the Khan. — ^Eebellion of 
YouBi.— Cexteltt of Yassali. — The Eetribution. 



" TTTHERE is my brother ?" exclaimed Vladimir ; " where 
' ' is he to whom we are indebted for all this glory ?" 
"No one could give any information respecting Dmitri. . In the 
tumult he had disappeared. Sadly the chieftains dispersed 
over the plain to search for him among the dead. After a 
long exploration, two soldiers found him in the midst of a heap 
of the slain. Stunned by a blow, he had fallen from his horse, 
and was apparently lifeless. As with filial love they hung 
over his remains, bathing his bloody brow, he opened his 
eyes. Gradually he recovered consciousnjess ; and as he saw 
the indications of triumph in the faces of his friends, heard 
the words of assurance that he had gained the victory, and 
witnessed the Russian banners all over the field, floating above 
the dead bodies of the Tartars, in a transport of joy he folded 
his hands upon his breast, closed his eyes and breathed forth 
a fervent, grateful prayer to God. The princes stood silently 
and reverently by, as their sovereign thus returned thanks to 
Heaven. 

Joy operated so effectually as a stimulus, that the prince, 
who had been stunned, but not seriously wounded, mounted 



DMITEI, VASSALI AND TAMEELANB. 153 

his horse and rode over the hard-fous^ht field. Thoucrh thou- 
sands of the Russians were silent in death, the prince couki 
count more than four times as many dead bodies of the enemy. 
According to the annals of the time, a hundred thousand 
Tartars were slain on tliat day. Couriers were immediately 
dispatched to all the principalities with the joyful tidings. 
The anxiety had been so great, that, from the moment the 
army passed the Don, the churches had been thronged by 
day and by night, and incessant prayers had ascended to 
heaven for its success. 'No language can describe the en- 
thusiasm which the glad tidings inspired. It was felt that 
henceforth the prosperity, the glory, the independence of 
Russia was secured for ever ; that the supremacy of the horde 
was annihilated ; that the blood of the Christians, shed upon 
the plain of Koulikof, was the last sacrifice Russia was doomed 
to make. 

But in these anticipations, Russia was destined to be sadly 
disappointed. Mamai, the discomfited Tartar chieftain, over- 
whelmed with shame and rage, reached, with the wreck of his 
army, one of the great encampments of the Tartars on the 
banks of the Volga. A new khan, the world-renowned Tam- 
erlane, now swayed the scepter of Tartar power. Two years 
were devoted to immense preparations for the new invasion 
of Russia. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Dmitri was informed 
that the Tartars were approaching in strength unprecedented. 
Russia was unprepared for the attack, and terror congealed 
all hearts. The invaders, crossing the Volga and the Oka, 
pressed rapidly towards Moscow. 

Dmitri, deeming it in vain to attempt the defense of the 
capital, fled, with his wife and children, two hundred miles 
north, to the fortress of Kostroma. A young prince, Ostei, 
was left in command of the city, with orders to hold it to the 
last extremity against the Tartars, and with the assurance 
that the king would return, as speedily as possible, with an 
army from Kostroma to his relief. The panic in the city was 

7* 



154 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

fearful, and the gates were crowded, day and night, by the 
women and children, the infirm and the timid seeking safety 
in flight. Ostei made the most vigorous preparations for 
defense, while the king, with untiring energy, was accumulat- 
ing an army of relief. The merchants and laborers from the 
neighboring villages, and even the monks and priests crowded 
to Moscow, demanding arms for the defense of the metrop- 
olis. From the battlements of the city, the advance of the 
barbarians could be traced by the volumes of smoke which 
arose, as from a furnace, through the day, and by the flames 
which flashed along the horizon, from the burning cities and 
villages, through the night. 

On the evening of the 23d of August, 1382, the Tartars 
appeared before the gates of the city. Some of the chiefs 
rode slowly around the ramparts, examining the ditch, the 
w^alls, the height of the towers, and selected the most favor- 
able spot for commencing the assault. The Tartars did not 
appear in such overwhelming numbers as report had taught 
the Russians to expect, and they felt quite sanguine that they 
should be able to defend the city. But the ensuing morning 
dispelled all these hopes. It then appeared that these Tartars 
were but the advance guard of the great army. With the 
earliest dawn, as far as the eye could reach, the inundation of 
warriors came rolling on, and terror vanquished all hearts. 
This army was under the command of a Tartar chieftain called 
Toktamonish. The assault was instantly commenced, and 
continued without cessation four days and nights. 

At length the city fell, vanquished, it is said, by sti-atagem 
rather than by force. The Tartars clambering, by means of 
ten thousand ladders, over the walls, and rushing through the 
gates, with no ear for mercy, commenced the slaughter of the 
inhabitants. The city was set on fire in all directions, and a 
scene of horror ensued indescribable and unimaginable. The 
barbarians, laden with booty, and satiated with blood and 
carnage, encamped on the plain outside of the walls, exulting 



DMITRI, VASSALI AND TAMEELANE. 155 

in the entireness of their vengeance. Moscow, the gorgeous 
capital, was no more. The dwellings of the city became but 
the funeral pyre for the bodies of the inhabitants. The Tar- 
tars, intoxicated with blood, dispersed over the whole prin- 
cipality ; and all its populous cities, Yladimir, Zvenigorod, 
Yourief, Mojaisk and Dmitrof, experienced the same fate with 
that of Moscow. The khan then retired, crossing the Oka 
at Kolomna, 

Dmitri arrived with his army at Moscow, only to behold 
the ruins. The enemy had already disappeared. In profound- 
est affliction, he gave orders for the interment of the charred 
and blackened bodies of the dead. Eighty thousand, by 
count, were interred, which number did not include the many 
who had been consumed entirely by the conflagration. Tiie 
walls of the city and the towers of the Kremlin still remained. 
With great energy, the prince devoted himself to the rebuild- 
ing and the repeopling of the capital ; many years, however, 
passed away ere it regained even the shadow of its former 
splendor. 

Thus again Russia, brought under the sway of the Tar- 
tars, was compelled to pay tribute, and Dmitri was forced to 
send his own son to the horde, where he was long detained 
as a hostage. The grand duchy of Lithuania, bordering on 
Poland, was spread over a region of sixty thousand square 
miles. The grand duke, Jaghellon, a burly pagan, had mar- 
ried Hedwige, Queen of Poland, promising, as one of the 
conditions of this marriage which would unite Lithuania and 
Poland, to embrace Christianity.* He was married and bap- 
tized at Cracow, receiving the Christian name of Ladislaus. 
He then ordered the adoption of Christianity throughout 
Lithuania, and the universal baptism of his subjects. Li order 
to facilitate the baptism of over a million at once, the inhab- 
itants were collected at several central points. They were 

* For an account of the romantic circumstances attending this marriagei- 
bee Empire of Austria, pp. 53 and 54. 



156 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

arrangod in vast groups, and were sprinkled with water whicb 
had been blessed by the priests. As the formula of baptism 
was pronounced, to one entire group the name of Peter was 
given, to another the name of Paul, to another that of John. 
These converts were received, not into the Greek church, 
which was dominant in Russia, but to the Romish church, 
wliich prevailed in Poland. Jaghellon became immediately 
tiie inveterate foe of the Russians, whom he called heretics, 
for new proselytes are almost invariably inspired with fa- 
natic zeal, and he forbade the marriage of any of his Cath- 
olic subjects with members of the Russian church. This 
event caused great grief to Dmitri, for he had relied upon the 
cooperation of the warlike Lithuanians to aid him to repel 
the Mogols. 

Affairs were in this condition when Yassali, the son of 
Dmitri, escaped fi'om the horde after a three years' captivity, 
and, traversing Poland and Lithuania, arrived safely at Mos- 
cow. Dmitri was now forty years of age. He was a man of 
colossal stature, and of vigorous health. His hair and beard 
were black as the raven's wing, and his ruddy cheek and 
piercing eye seemed to give promise of a long life. But sud- 
denly he was seized with a fatal disease, and it was soon 
evident that death was near. The intellect of the dying 
prince was unclouded, and, with much fortitude, in a long 
interview, he bade adieu to his wife and his children. He 
designated his son Vassali, then but seventeen years of age, 
as his successor, and then, after offering a touching prayer, 
folded his hands across his breast, in the form of a cross, and 
died without a struggle. The grief of the Russians was pro- 
found and universal. For ages they had not known a prince 
so illustrious or so devoted to the welfare of his country. 

The young Vassali had been but a few years on the throne 
when Tamerlane himself advanced with countless hordes from 
the far Orient, crushing down all opposition, and sweeping 
over prostrate nations like the pestilence which had preceded 



DMITRI, VASSALI AND TAMEELANE. 157 

him, and who^e track he followed. Tamerlane was the son 
of a petty Mogol prince. He was born in a season of anarchy, 
and when the whole Tartar horde was distracted with civil 
dissensions. The impetuous young man had hardly begun to 
think, ere he had formed the resolve to attain the supremacy 
over all the Mogol tribes, to conquer the whole known world, 
and thus to render himself immortal in the annals of glory. 
Behind a curtain of mountains, and protected by vast deserts, 
his persuasive genius collected a large band of followers, who 
with enthusiasm adopted his views and hailed him their chief. 

After inuring them to fatigue, and drilling them thorough- 
ly in the exercises of battle, he commenced his career. The 
most signal victory followed his steps, and he soon acquired 
the title of hero. Ambitious, war-loving, thousands crowded 
to his standards, and he had but just attained the age of 
thirty-five when he was the undisputed monarch of all the 
Mogol tribes, and the whole Asiatic world trembled at the 
mention of his name. He took his seat proudly upon the 
throne of Genghis Khan, a crown of gold was placed upon his 
brow, a royal girdle encircled his waist, and in accordance with 
oriental usage his robes glittered wnth jewels and gold. At 
his feet were his renowned chieftains, kneeling around his 
throne in homage. Tamerlane then took an oath, that by his 
future exploits he would justify the title he had already ac- 
quired, and that all the kings of the earth should yet lie 
prostrate before him. 

And now commenced an incessant series of wars, and 
victory ever crowned the banners of Tamerlane. He was 
soon in possession of all the countries on the eastern shores 
of the Caspian Sea. He then entered Persia, and conquered 
the whole realm between the Oxus and the Tigris. Bagdad, 
until now the proud capital of the caliphs, submitted to his 
sway. Soon the whole region of Asia, from the Sea of Aral 
to the Persian Gulf, and from Tetlis to the great Arabian 
desert, recognized the empire of Tamerlane. The conqueror 



158 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

then assembled his companions in arms, and thus addressed 
them: 

" Friends and fellow-soldiers ; fortune, who recognizes me 
as her child, invites us to new conquests. The universe trem- 
bles at my name, and the movement even of one of my 
fingers causes the earth to quake. The realms of India are 
open to us. Woe to those who oppose my will. I will an- 
nihilate them unless they acknowledge me as their lord." 

With flying banners and pealing trumpets he crossed the 
Indus, and marched upon Delhi, which for three centuries had 
been governed by the Mohammedan sultans. Ko opposition 
could retard the sweep of his locust legions ; and the re- 
nowned city at once passed into his hands. Indulging in no 
delay, the order was still onwards^ and the hosts soon bathed 
their dusty limbs in the waves of the Ganges. Here he was 
informed that Bajazet, the Grand Seignior of Turkey, was on 
a career of conquest which rivaled his own ; that he had 
overrun all of Asia Minor ; that, crossing the Hellespont, he 
had subjugated Servia, Macedonia, Thessaly, and that he was 
even besieging the imperial city of Constantine. The jealousy 
of Tamerlane was thoroughly aroused. He instantly turned 
upon his steps to seek this foe, worthy of his arms, dispatch- 
ing to him the following defiant message : 

"Learn," wrote Tamerlane to Bajazet, "that the earth is 
covered with my warriors from sea to sea. Kings compose 
my body guard, and range themselves as servants before my 
tent. Are you ignorant that the destiny of the universe is in 
ray hands? Who are you? A Turkoman ant. And dare 
you raise your head against an elephant ? If in the forests 
of Natolia you have obtained some trivial successes; if the 
timid Europeans have fled like cowards before you, return 
thanks to Mohammed for your success, for it is not owing to 
your own valor. Listen to the counsels of wisdom. Be con- 
tent with the heritage of your fathers, and, however small 
that heritage may be, beware how you attempt, in the slight- 



DMITRI, VASSALI AND TAMERLANE. 150 

est degree, to extend its limits, lest death be the penalty of 
your temerity." 

To this insolent letter, Bajazet responded in terms equally 
defiant. 

"For a long time," he wrote, "Bajazet has burned with 
the desire to measure himself with Tamerlane, and he returns 
thanks to the All-powerful that Tamerlane now comes him- 
self, to present his head to the cimeter of Bajazet." 

The two conquerors gathered all their resources for the 
great and decisive battle. Tamerlane speedily reached Aleppo, 
which city, after a bloody conflict, he entered in triumph. 
The Tartar chieftain was an impostor and a hypocrite, as 
well as a merciless butcher of his fellow-men. He assembled 
the learned men of Aleppo, and assured them in most eloquent 
terms that he was the devoted friend of God, and that the 
enemies who resisted his will were responsible to God for all 
the evils their obstinacy rendered it necessary for him to in- 
flict. Before every conflict he fell upon his knees in the 
presence of the army in prayer. After every victory, he as- 
sembled his troops to return thanks to God. There are some 
sad accounts to be settled at the judgment day. In marching 
from Aleppo to Damascus, Tamerlane visited ostentatiously 
the pretended tomb of Noah, that upon the shrine of that pa- 
triarch, so profoundly venerated by the Mohammedans, he 
might display his devotion. 

Damascus was pillaged of all its treasures, which had been 
accumulating for ages, and was then laid in ashes. The two 
armies, headed by their respective chieftains, met in Galacia, 
near Ancyra. It was the 16th of June, 1402. The storm of 
war raged for a few hours, and the army of Bajazet was cut 
to pieces by superior numbers, and he himself was taken cap- 
tive. Tamerlane treated his prisoner with the most conde- 
scending kindness, seated him by his side upon the imperial 
couch, and endeavored to solace him by philosophical disquisi- 
tions upon the mutability of all human affairs. The annals of 



160 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the day do not sustain the rumor that Bajazet was confined 
in an iron cage. 

The empire of Tamerlane now extended from the Caspian 
and the Mediterranean to the Nile and the Gangres. He es- 
tablished his capital at Samarcand, some six hundred miles 
east of the Caspian Sea. To this central capital he returned 
after each of his expeditions, devoting immense treasures to 
the erection of mosques, the construction of gardens, the ex- 
cavation of canals and the erection of cities. And now, in 
the pride and plenitude of his power, he commenced his 
march upon Russia. 

His army, four hundred thousand strong, defiled from the 
gates of Samarcand, and marching to the north, between the 
Aral and the Caspian Seas, traversed vast plains, where thou- 
sands of wild cattle had long enjoyed undisturbed pasturage. 
These cattle afforded them abundant food. The chase, in 
which they engaged on a magnificent scale, offered a very 
brilliant spectacle. Thousands of horsemen spread out in an 
immense circle, making the tent of the emperor the central 
point. With trumpet blasts, the clash of arms and clouds of 
javelins and arrows, the cattle and wild beasts of every kind 
were driven in upon the imperial tent, where Tamerlane and 
his lords amused themselves with their destruction. The sol- 
diers gathered around the food thus abundantly supplied, in- 
numerable fires were built, and feasting and mirth closed the 
day. Vast herds of cattle were driven along for the ordinary 
supply of the troops, affording all the nourishment which 
these rude barbarians required. Pressing forward, in a long 
ninrch, which occupied several months, Tamerlane crossed the 
Volga, and entered the south-eastern principalities of Russia. 
The tidings of the invasion spread rapidly, and all Russia was 
paralyzed with terror. The grand prince, Vassali, however, 
strove with all his eneriries to rouse the Russians to resistance. 
An army was speedily collected, and veteran leaders placed in 
command. The Russian troops were rapidly concentrated 



DMITRI, VASSALI AXD TAMERLANE. 161 

near Kolomna, ou the banks of the Oka, to dispute the pas- 
sa^e of the river. All the churches of Moscow and of Rus- 
sia were thronged with the terrified inhabitants imploring 
divine aid, the clergy conducting the devotions by day and 
by night. 

Tamerlane, crossing from the Yolga to the Don, ascended 
the valley of the latter stream, spreading the most cruel dev- 
astation everywhere around him. It was his design to con- 
found his enemies with terror. He was pressing on resist- 
lessly towards Moscow, and had arrived within a few days' 
march of the Russian army on the banks of the Oka, when 
suddenly he stopped, and remained fifteen days without mov- 
ing from his encampment. Then, for some cause, w^iich his- 
tory has never satisfactorly explained, he turned, retraced his 
steps, and his banners soon disappeared beyond the frontiers 
of the empire. It was early in September when he com- 
menced this retrosrrade march. Some have surmised that 
he feared the Russians, strongly posted on the banks of the 
Oka, others that he dreaded the approaching Russian winter; 
others that intelligence of some conspiracy in his distant 
realms arrested his steps, and others that God, in answer to 
prayer, directly interposed, and rescued Russia from ruin. 

The joy of the Russians was almost delirious ; and no one 
thought even of pursuing a foe, who without arriving within 
sight of the banners of the grand prince, or without hearing 
the sound of his war trumpets, had fled as in a panic. 

The whole of the remaining reign of Yassali was a scene 
of tumult and strife. Civil war agitated the principalities. 
The Lithuanians, united with Poland, were incessant in their 
endeavors to extend the triumph of their arms over the Rus- 
sian provinces ; and the Tartar hordes again swept Russia 
with the most horrible devastation. In the midst of calami- 
ties and lamentations, Yassali approached his grave. He died 
on the 29th of February, 1425, in the fifty -third year of hia 
age, and the thirty-sixth of his reign. 



162 THE EMPIEE OF EUSSIA. 

Vassal! Vassalievitch, son of the deceased monarch, was 
"but ten years of age when the scepter of Russia passed into 
his hands. Youri, the eldest brother of the late king, de- 
manded the throne in accordance with the ancient custom of 
descent, and denied the right of his brother to bequeath the 
crown to his son. After much trouble, both of the rival 
claimants consented to submit the question to the decision of 
the Tartar khan, to whom it appears that Russia still paid 
tribute. Vassali was to remain upon the throne until the 
question was dooided. Six years passed away, and yet no 
answer to the appeal had been obtained from the khan. At 
length both agreed to visit the horde in person. It was a 
perilous movement, and Vassali, as yet but a boy sixteen 
years of age, wept bitterly as he left the church, where he 
had implored the prayers of the faithful, and set out upon bis 
journey. All the powers of bribery and intrigue were em- 
ployed by each party to obtain a favorable verdict. 

A tribunal was appointed to adjudge the cause, over which 
Machmet, the khan, presided. Vassali claimed the domin- 
ion, on the ground of the new rule of descent adopted by the 
Russian princes. Youri pleaded the ancient custom of the 
empire. The power which the Tartar horde still exercised, 
may be inferred from the humiliating speech which Jean, a 
noble of Moscow, made on this occasion, in advocacy of the 
cause of the young Vassali. Approaching Machmet, and bow- 
ing profoundly before him, he said, 

" Sovereign king, your humble slave conjures you to per- 
mit him to speak in behalf of his young prince. Youri founds 
his claim upon the ancient institutions of Russia. Vassali ap- 
peals only to your generous protection, for he knows that Rus- 
sia is but one of the provinces of your vast domains. You, as 
its sovereign, can dispose of the throne according to your 
pleasure. Condescend to reflect that the uncle demands^ the 
nephew supplicates. What signify ancient or modern cus- 
toms when all depends upon your royal will ? Is it not that 



DMITEI, VASSALI AND TAMERLANE. 163 

august will which has confirmed the testament of Yassali 
Dmitrievitch, by which his son was nominated as heir of the 
principality of Moscow ? For six years, Vassali Yassilievitch 
has been upon the throne. Would you have allowed him 
thus to remain there had you not recognized him as the legit- 
imate prince ?" 

This base flattery accomplished its object. Yassali was 
pronounced grand prince, and, in accordance with Tartar cus- 
tom, the uncle was compelled to hold the bridle while his 
successful rival, at the door of the tent, mounted his horse. 
On their return to Moscow, Yassali was crowned, with great 
pomp, in the church of Notre Dame. Youri, while at the 
horde, dared not manifest the slightest opposition to the 
decision, but, having returned to his own country, he mur- 
mured loudly, rallied his friends, excited disaffection, and 
soon kindled the flames of civil war. 

Youri soon marched, with an army, upon Moscow, took 
the city by storm, and Yassali, who had displayed but little 
energy of character, was made captive. Youri proclaimed 
himself grand prince, and Yassali in vain endeavored to 
move the compassion of his captor by tears. The uncle, how- 
ever, so far had pity for his vanquished nephew as to appoint 
him to the governorship of the city of Kolomna. This seemed 
perfectly to satisfy the pusillanimous young man, and, after 
partaking of a splendid feast with his uncle, he departed, 
rejoicing, from the capital where he had been enthroned, to 
the provincial city assigned to him. 

A curious result ensued. Youri broucrht to Moscow his 
own friends, who were placed in the posts of honor and au- 
thority. Such general discontent was excited, that the citi- 
zens, in crowds, abandoned Moscow and repaired to Kolomna, 
and rallied, with the utmost enthusiasm, around their ejected 
sovereisrn. The dwellings and the streets of Moscow became 
silent and deserted. Kolomna, on the contrary, was thronged. 
To use the expression of a Russian annalist, the people gath- 



164 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

ered around their prince as bees cluster around their queen. 
The tidings of the life, activity and thriving business to be 
found at Kolomna, lured ever-increasing numbers, and, in a 
few months, grass was growing in the streets of Moscow, 
while Kolomna had become the thronged metropolis of the 
principality. The nobles, with their armies, gathered around 
Yassali, and Youri was so thoroughly abandoned, that, con 
vinced of the impossibility of maintaining his position, he sent 
word to his nephew that he yielded to him the capital, and 
immediately left for his native principality of Galitch. 

The journey of Yassali, from Kolomna to Moscow, a dis 
tance of two hundred miles, was a brilliant triumph. An 
immense crowd accompanied the grand prince the w^hole 
distance, raising incessant shouts of joy. But Youri was by 
no means prepared to relinquish his claim, and soon the armies 
of the two rivals were struggling upon the field of battle. 
While the conflict was raging, Youri suddenly died at the age 
of sixty years. One of the sons of Youri made an attempt to 
regain the throne which his father had lost, but he failed in 
the attempt, and was taken captive. Yassali, as cruel as he 
was pusillanimous, in vengeance, plucked out the eyes of his 
cousin. Yassali, now seated peacefully upon his throne, ex- 
erted himself to keep on friendly relations with the horde, 
by being prompt in the payment of the tribute which they 
exacted. 

In June, 1444, the Tartars, having taken some offense, 
again invaded Russia. Yassali had no force of character to 
resist them. Under his weak reign the grand principality had 
lost all its vigor. The Tartars surprised the Russian army near 
Moscow, and overwhelming them with numbers, two to one, 
trampled them beneath their horses. Yassali fought fiercely, 
as sometimes even the most timid will fight when hedged in 
by despair. An arrow pierced his hand ; a saber stroke cut 
off several of his fingers; a javelin pierced his shoulder; thir- 
teen wounds covered his head and breast, when by the blow 



DMITRI, VASSALI AND TAMERLANE. 105 

of a battle-ax lie was struck to the ground and taken prisoner. 
The Tartars, elated with their signal victory, and fearful that 
all Russia might rise for the rescue of its prince, retreated 
rapidly, carrying with them their captive and immense booty. 
As they retired they plundered and burned every city and 
village on their w^ay. After a captivity of three months the 
prince was released, upon paying a moderate ransom, and re- 
turned to Moscow. 

Still new sorrows awaited the prince. He was doomed to 
experience that, even in this world. Providence often rewards 
a man according to his deeds. The brothers of the prince, 
whose eyes Yassali had caused to be plucked out, formed a 
conspiracy against him ; and they were encouraged in this 
conspiracy by the detestation with which the grand prince 
was now generally regarded. 

During the night of the 12th of February, 1446, the con- 
spirators entered the Kremlin. Vassali, who attemj^ted to 
compensate for his neglect of true religion by punctilious 
and ostentatious observance of ecclesiastical rites, was in the 
church of the Trinity attending a midnight mass. Silently 
the conspirators surrounded the church with their troops. 
Yassali was prostrate upon the tomb of a Russian saint, appar- 
ently absorbed in devotion. Soon the alarm w^as given, and 
the prince, in a paroxysm of terror, threw himself upon his 
knees, and for once, at least, in his life, prayed with sincerity 
and fervor. His pathetic cries to God for help caused many 
of the nobles around him to weep. The prince was immedi- 
ately seized, no opposition being offered, and was confined in 
one of the palaces of Moscow. Four nights after his capture, 
some agents of the conspirators entered his apartment and 
tore out his eyes, as he had torn out the eyes of his cousin. 
He was then sent, with his wife, to a castle in a distant city, 
and his children were immured in a convent. Dmitri Chem- 
yaka, the prime mover of this conspiracy, now assumed the 
reins of government. Gradually the grand principality had 



166 THE EMPIEE OF EUSSIA. 

lost its power over the other principalities of the empire, and 
Russia was again, virtually, a conglomeration of independent 
states. 

Public opinion now turned so sternly against Chemyaka, 
and such bitter murmurs rose around his throne for the cruelty 
he had practiced upon Yassali, that he felt constrained to libe- 
rate the prince, and to assign him a residence of splendor upon 
the shores of lake Kouben. Chemyaka, thus constrained to 
set the body of his captive free, wished to enchain his soul by 
the most solemn oaths. With all his court he visited Yassali. 
The blinded prince, with characteristic duplicity, expressed 
heartfelt penitence in view of his past course, and took the 
most solemn oaths never to attempt to disturb the reign of 
his conqueror. 

Yassali received the city of Yologda in appanage, to which 
he retired, with his family, and with the nobles and bishops 
who still adhered to him. But a few months had passed ere 
he, with his friends, had enlisted the cooperation of many 
princes, and especially of the Tartar horde, and was on the 
march with a strong army to drive Chemyaka from Moscow. 
Chemyaka, utterly discomfited, fled, and Moscow fell easily 
into the hands of Yassali the blind. 

Anguish of body and of soul seems now to have changed 
the nature of Yassali, and with energy, disinterestedness and 
wisdom undeveloped before, he consecrated himself to the 
welfare of his country. He associated with himself his young 
son Ivan, w^ho subsequently attained the title of the Great. 
" But Chemyaka," writes Karamsin, " still lived, and his heart, 
ferocious, implacable, sought new means of vengeance. His 
death seemed necessary for the safety of the state, and some 
one gave him poison, of which he died the next day. The 
author, of an action so contrary to religion, to the principles 
of morality and of honor, remains unknown. A lawyer, 
named Beda, who conveyed the news of his death to Mos- 
cow, was elevated to the rank of secretary by the grand 



DMITRI, VASSALI AND TAMERLANE. 167 

prince, who exhibited ou that occasion an indiscreet joy." 
On the 14th of March, 1462, Yassali terminated his eventful 
and tumultuous life, at the age of forty-seven. His reign was 
during one of the darkest periods in the Russian annals. Life 
to him, and to his cotemporaries, was but a pitiless tempest, 
through which hardly one ray of sunshine penetrated. It 
was under his reign that the horrible punishment of the knout 
was introduced into Moscow, a barbaric mode of scourging un- 
known to the ancient Russians. Fire-arms were also beorin- 
ning to be introduced, which weapons have diminished rather 
than increased the carnage of fields of battle. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III, 

From 1462 to 1480. 

IVAK III. — His Pkecocitt and Kising Poweb. — ^The Three Geeat Hoedes.— Eussian 
Expedition against Kezan. — Defeat of the Tartars. — Capture of Constanti- 
nople BY THE Turks. — The Princess Sophia. — Hkr Journey to Eussia, and Mar- 
BiAGE with Ivan III. — Increasing Renown of Russia. — New Difficulty with 
the Horde. — The Tartars Invade Russia. — Strife on the Banks of the Oka. — 
Lbttbb op the Metropolitan Bishop. — Unprecedented Panic. — ^Liberation op 
Bvssia. 

TN" the middle of the fifteenth century, Constantinople was 
-*- to Russia what Paris, in the reign of Louis XIV., Avas to 
modern Europe. The imperial city of Constantine was tlie 
central point of ecclesiastical magnificence, of courtly splen- 
dor, of taste, of all intellectual culture.* To the Greeks the 
Russians were indebted for their religion, their civilization 
and their social culture. 

Ivan III., who had for some time been associated with his 
father in the government, was now recognized as the undis- 
puted prince of the grand principality, though his sway over 
the other provinces of Russia was very feeble, and very ob- 
scurely defined. At twelve years of age, Ivan was married to 
Maria, a princess of Tver. At eighteen years of age he was 
the father of a son, to whom he gave his own name. When 
he had attained the age of twenty -two years, his father died, 
and the reins of government passed entirely into his hands. 
From his earliest years, he gave indications of a character of 
much more than ordinary judgment and maturity. Upon his 

* Karamsin, vol. ix, p. 436. 



THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III. 169 

accession to the throne, he not only declined making any ap- 
peal to the khan for the ratification of his authority, but re- 
fused to pay the tribute which the horde had so long extorted. 
The result was, that the Tartars were speedily rallying their 
forces, with vows of vengeance. But on the march, fortu- 
nately for Russia, they fell into a dispute among themselves, 
and exhausted their energies in mutual slaughter. 

According to the Greek chronology, the world was then 
approaching the end of the seven thousandth year since the 
creation, and the impression was universal that the end of the 
world was at hand. It is worthy of remark that this convic- 
tion seemed rather to increase recklessness and crime than to 
be promotive of virtue. But the years glided on, and gradu- 
ally the impression faded away. Ivan, with extraordinary 
energy and sagacity, devoted himself to the consolidation of 
the Russian empire, and the development of all its sources of 
wealth. The refractory princes he assailed one by one, and, 
favored by a peculiar combination of circumstances, succeeded 
in chastising them into obedience. 

The great Mogol power was essentially concentrated in 
three immense hordes. All these three combined when there 
was a work of national importance to be achieved. The largest 
of the hordes, and the most eastern, spread over a region of un- 
defined extent, some hundreds of miles east of the Caspian Sea. 
The most western occupied a large territory upon the Yolga 
and the Kama, called Kezan. From this, their encampment, 
where they had already erected many flourishing cities, en- 
riched by commerce with India and Greece, they were con- 
tinually ravaging the frontiers of Russia, often penetrating the 
country three or four hundred miles, laying the largest cities 
in ashes, and then retiring laden with plunder and prisoners. 
This encampment of the horde was but five hundred miles 
east of Moscow ; but much of the country directly intervening 
was an uninhabited waste, so great was the terror which the 
barbarians inspii-ed. 



170 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

Ivan resolved to take Kezan from the horde. It was the 
boldest resolve which any Russian prince had conceived for 
ages. All the mechanics in the great cities which lined the 
banks of the upper Volga and the Oka, were employed in 
constructing barges, which were armed with the most ap- 
proved instruments of war. The enthusiasm of Russia was 
roused to the highest pitch by this naval expedition, which 
presented a spectacle as novel as it was magnificent and excit- 
ing:. 

War has its pageantry as well as its woe. The two flo 
tillas, with fluttering pennants and resounding music, ano 
crowded with gayly-dressed and sanguine warriors, floated 
down the streams until they met, at the confluence of these 
rivers, near Nizni Novgorod. Here the two fleets, covering 
the Volga for many leagues, were united. Spreading their 
sails, they passed rapidly down the river about two hundred 
miles, until they arrived at Kezan, the capital of the horde. 
Deeming their enterprise a rehgious one, in which the cross 
of Christ was to be planted against the banners of the infidel, 
they all partook of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and 
engaged in the most earnest exercises of devotion the evening 
before they reached their place of landing. 

In those days inteUigence was only transmitted by means 
of couriers, at vast expense, and either accompanied by an 
army or by a strong body guard. The Mogols had no suspi- 
cion of the tempest which was about to break over their heads. 
On the 21st of May, 1469, before the dawn of the morning, 
the Russians leaped upon the shore near Kezan, the capital, 
and with trumpet blasts and appalling cries, rushed upon the 
sleeping inhabitants. Without resistance they penetrated the 
streets. The Russians, in war, were as barbaric as the Tar- 
tars. The city was set on fire; indiscriminate slaughter en- 
sued, and awful vengeance was taken for the woes which the 
horde had for ages inflicted upon Russia. But few escaped. 
Those who fell not by the sword perished in the flames. Many 



THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III. 171 

Russian prisoners were found in the city who had been in 
slavery for years. 

Thus far, success, exceeding the most sanguine anticipa- 
tions, had accompanied the enterprise. The victorious Rus- 
sians, burdened wich the plunder of the city, reembarked, 
and, descending the river some distance, landed upon an 
island which presented every attraction for a party of pleas- 
ure, and there they passed a week in rest, in feasting and in 
all festive joys. Ibrahim, prince of the horde, escaped the 
general carnage, and, in a few days, rallied such, a force of 
cavalry as to make a fierce assault upon the invaders. The 
strife continued, from morning until night, without any de- 
cisive results, when both parties were glad to seek repose, 
with the Volga flowing between them. The next morning 
neither were willing to renew the combat. Ibrahim soon had 
a flotilla upon the Volga nearly equal to that of the Russians. 
The war now raged, embittered by every passion which can 
goad the soul of man to madness. 

One of the Russian princes, a man of astonishing nerve 
and agility, in one of these conflicts sprang into a Tartar boat, 
smiting, with his war club, upon the right hand and the left, 
and, leaping from boat to boat of the foe, warded off" every 
blow, striking down multitudes, until he finally returned, in 
safety, to his own flotilla, cheered by the huzzas of his troops. 
The Mogols were punished, not subdued ; but this punish- 
ment, so unexpected and severe, was quite a new experience 
for them. The Russian troops, elated with their success, 
returned to Nizni Novgorod. In the autumn, Ivan III. sent 
another army, under the command of his two brothers, Youri 
and Andre, to cooperate with the troops in Nizni Novgorod 
in a new expedition. This army left Moscow in two divis- 
ions, one of which marched across the country, and the other 
descended the Volga in barges. Ibrahim had made every 
effort in his power to prepare to repel the invasion. A 
decisive battle was fought. The Mogols, completely van- 



1'72 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

quished, were compelled to accept such terms as the con* 
queror condescended to grant. 

This victory attracted the attention of Europe, and the 
great monarchies of the southern portion of the continent 
began to regard Russia as an infant power which might yet 
rise to importance. Another event at this time occurred 
which brought Russia still more prominently into the view of 
the nations of the South. In the year 1467, the grand prince, 
with tears of anguish, buried his young and beautiful spouse. 
Five years of widowhood had passed away. The Turks had 
overrun Asia Minor, and, crossing the Hellespont under Mo- 
hammed II., with bloody cimeter had taken Constantinople by 
storm, cutting down sixty thousand of its inhabitants, and 
bringing all Greece under the Turkish sway. The Moham- 
medan placed his heel upon the head of the Christian, and 
Constantinople became the capital of Moslem power. This 
was in the year 1472. 

Constantin Paleologue was the last of the Grecian em- 
perors. One of his brothers, Thomas, escaping from the 
ruins of his country, fled to Rome, where, in consideration of 
his illustrious rank and lineage, he received a large monthly 
stipend from the pope. Thomas had a daughter, Sophia, a 
princess of rare beauty, and richly endowed with all mental 
graces and attractions. The pope sought a spouse worthy of 
this princess, who was the descendant of a long line of em- 
perors. Mohammed II., having overrun all Greece, flushed 
with victory, was collecting his forces for the invasion of the 
Italian peninsula, and his vaunt, that he would feed his horse 
from the altar of St. Peter'' s^ had thrilled the ear of Catholic 
Europe. The pope, Paul II., anxious to rouse all the Chris- 
tian powers against the Turks, wished to make the marriage 
of the Grecian princess promotive of his political views. Her 
beauty, her genius and her exalted birth rendered her a rare 
prize. 

Rumors had reached Rome of the vast population and 



THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III. 173 

extraordinary wealth of Russia ; nearly all the great Russian 
rivers emptied into the Black Sea, and along these channels 
the Russian flotillas could easily descend upon the conquerors 
of Constantinople; Russia was united with Greece by the ties 
of the same religion, and the recent victory over the Tartars 
had given the grand prince great renown. These considera- 
tions influenced the pope to send an embassador to Moscow, 
proposing to Ivan III. the hand of Sophia, To increase the 
apparent value of the offer, the embassador was authorized to 
state that the princess had refused the hand of the King of 
France, and also of the Duke of Milan, she being unwilling, as 
a member of the Greek church, to ally herself with a prince 
of the Latin religion. 

Nothing could have been more attractive to Ivan III., and 
his nobles, than this alliance. " God himself," exclaimed a 
bishop, " must have conferred the gift. She is a shoot fi-om 
an imperial tree which formerly overspread all orthodox 
Christians. This alhance will make Moscow another Con 
stantinople, and will confer upon our sovereign the rights of 
the Grecian emperors." 

The grand prince, not deeming it decorous to appear too 
eager, and yet solicitous lest he might lose the prize, sent an 
embassador, with a numerous suite, to Rome, with a letter to 
the pope, and to report more particularly respecting the 
princess, not forgetting to bring him her portrait. This em- 
bassage was speedily followed by another, authorized to com- 
plete the arrangements. The embassadors were received 
with signal honors by Sextus IV., who had just succeeded 
Paul II., and at length it was solemnly announced, in a full 
conclave of cardinals, on the 22d of May, 1472, that the 
Russian prince wished to espouse Sophia. Some of the 
cardinals objected to the orthodoxy of Ivan III. ; but the 
pope replied that it was by condescension and kindness alone 
that they could hope to open the eyes of one spiritually 
blind ; a sentiment which it is to be regretted that the court 



174 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

of Rome and also all other communions have too often ig- 
nored. 

On the 1st of June the princess was sacredly affianced in 
the church of St. Peter's to the prince of Moscow, the em- 
bassadors of Ivan III. assuring the pope of the zeal of their 
monarch for the happy reunion of the Greek and Latin 
churches. The pope conferred a very rich dowry upon 
Sophia, and sent his legate to accompany her to Russia, at- 
tended by a splendid suite of the most illustrious Romans. 
The affianced princess had a special court oi her own, with 
its functionaries of every grade, and its established etiquette. 
A large number of Greeks followed her to Moscow, hoping 
to find in that distant capital a second country. Directions 
were given by the pope that, in every city through which 
she should pass, the princess should receive the honors due 
to her rank, and that, especially throughout Italy and Ger- 
many, she should be furnished with entertainment, relays of 
horses and guides, until she should arrive at the frontiers of 
Russia. 

Sophia left Rome on the 24th of August, and after a rapid 
journey of six days, arrived, on the 1st of September, at 
Lubec, on the extreme southera shore of the Baltic. Here 
she remained ten days, and on the 10th of September era- 
barked in a ship expressly and gorgeously equipped for her 
accommodation. A sail of eight hundred miles along the 
Baltic Sea, which occupied twenty days, conveyed the prin- 
cess to Revel, near the mouth of the Gulf of Finland. Ar- 
riving at this city on the 30th of September, she remained 
there for rest, ten days, during which time she was regaled 
with the utmost magnificence by the authorities of the place. 
Couriers had been immediately dispatched, by the way of 
Novgorod, to Moscow, to inform the prince of her arrival. 
Her journey from Revel to lake Tchoude presented but a 
continued triumphal show. On the 11th of October she 
reached the shores of the lake. A flotilla of barges, deco- 



I 



THE ILLUSTEIOUS IVAN III. 176 

rated with garlands and pennants, here awaited her. A 
pleasant sail of two days conveyed her across the lake. Ini 
mediately upon landing at Pskov, she repaired, with all hei 
retinue, to the church of Notre Darae, to give thanks to 
Heaven for the prosperity which had thus far attended her 
journey. From the church she was conducted to the palace 
of the prince of that province, where she received from the 
nobles many precious gifts. 

After a five days' sojourn at Pskov, she left the city to con- 
tinue her journey. Upon taking her departure, she aroused 
the enthusiasm of the citizens by the following words; 

" I must hasten to present myself before your prince who 
is soon to be mine. I thank the magistrates, the nobles and 
the citizens generally for the reception which they have given 
me, and I promise never to neglect to plead the cause of 
Pskov at the court of Moscow." 

At Novgorod she was again entertained with all the 
splendor which Russian opulence and art could display. The 
Russian winter had already commenced, and the princess 
entered Moscow, in a sledge, on the 12th of November. An 
innumerable crowd accompanied her. She was welcomed at 
the gates of the city by the metropolitan bishop, who con- 
ducted her to the church, where she received his benediction. 
She was then presented to the mother of the grand prince, 
who introduced her to her future spouse. Immediately the 
marriage ceremony was performed with the most imposing 
pomp of the Greek church. 

This marriao;e contributed much in makingr Russia better 
known throughout Europe. In that age, far more than now, 
exalted birth was esteemed the greatest of earthly honors ; and 
Sophia, the daughter of a long line of emperors, was followed 
by the eyes of every court in Europe to her distant destina- 
tion. Moreover, many Greeks, of high a3stlietic and intellec- 
tual culture, exiled from their country by the domination of 
ftbe Turk, followed their princess to Russia. They, by their 



176 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

knowledge of the arts and sciences, rendered essential service 
to their adopted kingdom, which was just emerging from 
barbarism. They enriched the libraries by the books which 
they had rescued from the barbarism of the Turks, and con- 
tributed much to the eclat of the court of Moscow by the 
introduction of the pompous ceremonies of the Grecian court. 
Indeed, from this date Moscow was often called a second 
Constantinople. The capital was rapidly embellished with 
palaces and churches, constructed in the highest style of 
Grecian and Italian architecture. From Italy, also, mechan- 
ics were introduced, who established foundries for casting 
cannon, and mints for the coinage of money. 

The prominent object in the mind of Ivan III. was the 
consolidation of all the ancient principalities into one great 
empire, being firmly resolved to justify the title which he had 
assumed, oi Sovereign of all the JRussias. He wished to give 
new vigor to the monarchical power, to abolish the ancient 
system of almost independent appanages which was leading 
to incessant wars, and to wrest from the princes those prerog- 
atives which limited the authority of the sovereign. This 
was a formidable undertaking, requiring great sagacity and 
firmness, but it would doubtless be promotive of the welfare 
of Russia to be under the sway of one general sovereign, 
rather than to be exposed to the despotism of a hundred 
petty and quarrelsome princes. Ivan III. was anxious to 
accomplish this result without violating any treaty, without 
committing any arbitrary or violent act which could rouse 
opposition. 

That he might triumph over the princes, it was necessary 
for him to secure the afiections of the people. The palace was 
consequently rendered easy of access to them all. Appointed 
days were consecrated to justice, and, from morning until 
evening, the grand prince listened to any complaints from his 
subjects. The old magistrates had generally forfeited all 
claim to esteem. Regarding only their own interests, they 



THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III. 177 

trafficked in offices, favored their relatives, persecuted theii 
enemies and surrounded themselves with crowds of parasites 
who stifled, in the courts of justice, all the complaints of the 
oppressed. Novgorod was first brought into entire subjection 
to the crown ; then Pskov. 

While affairs were moving thus prosperously in Russia, the 
horde upon the Volga was also recovering its energies ; and 
a new khan, Akhniet, war-loving and inflated by the success 
which his sword had already achieved, resolved to bring Rus- 
sia again into subjection. He accordingly, in the year 1480, 
sent an embassy, bearing an image of the khan as their cre- 
dentials, to Moscow, to demand the tribute which of old had 
been paid to the Tartars. Ivan III. was in no mood to receive 
the insult patiently. He admitted the embassage into the 
audience chamber of his palace. His nobles, in imposing 
array, were gathered around prepared for a scene such as 
was not unusual in those barbaric times. As soon as the em- 
bassadors entered and were presented, the image of thfi khan 
was dashed to the floor by the order of Ivan, and trampled 
under feet ; and all the Mogol embassadors, with the excep- 
tion of one, were slain. 

" Go," said Ivan sternly to him, " go to your master and 
tell him what you have seen ; tell him that if he has the inso- 
lence again to trouble my repose, I will treat him as I have 
served his image and his embassadors." 

This emphatic declaration of war was followed on both 
sides by the mustering of armies. The horde was soon in mo- 
tion, passing from the Volga to the Don in numbers which 
were represented to be as the sands of the sea. They rapidly 
and resistlessly ascended the valley of this river, marking their 
path by a swath of ruin many miles in width. The grand 
prince took the command of the Russian army in person, and 
rendezvoused his troops at Kalouga, thence stationhig them 
along the northern banks of the Oka, to dispute the passage 
of that stream. All Russia was in a state of feverish excite- 

8* 



178 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

ment. One decisive battle would settle the question, whether 
the invaders were to be driven in bloody rout out of the em- 
pire, or, whether the whole kingdom was to be surrendered to 
devastation by savages as fierce and merciless as wolves. 

About the middle of October the two armies met upon the 
opposite banks of the Oka, with only the waters of that nar- 
row stream to separate them. Cannon and muskets were 
then just coming into use, but they were rude and feeble 
instruments compared with the power of such weapons at the 
present day. Swords, arrows, javelins, clubs, axes, battering- 
rams and catapults, and the tramplings of horse were the en- 
gines of destruction which man then wielded most potently 
against his fellow-man. The quarrel was a very simple one. 
Some hundreds of thousands of Mogols had marched to the 
heart of Russia, leaving behind them a path of flame and 
blood nearly a thousand miles in length, that they might com- 
pel the Russians to pay them tribute. Some hundred thou- 
sand Russians had met them there, to resist even to death 
their insolent and oppressive demand. 

The Tartars were far superior in numbers to the Russians, 
but Ivan had made such a skillful disposition of his troops that 
Akhmet could not cross the stream. For nearly a week the 
two armies fought from the opposite banks, throwing at each 
other bullets, balls, stones, arrows and javelins. A tew were 
wounded and some slain in this impotent warfare. 

The Russians were, however, very faint-hearted. It was 
evident that, should the Tartars effect the passage of the river, 
the Russians, already demoralized by fear, would be speedily 
overpowered. The grand prince himself was so apprehensive 
as to the result, that he sent one of his nobles with rich pres« 
ents to the khan and proposed terms of peace. Akhmet re- 
jected the presents, and sent back the haughty reply : 

'' I have come thus far to take vengeance upon Ivan ; to 
punish him for neglecting for nine years to appear before me 
with tribute and in homage. Let him come penitently into 



THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III. 179 

my presence and kiss my stirrup, and then perhaps, if my 
lords intercede for him, I may foigive him." 

As soon as it was heard in Moscow that the grand prince 
was manifesting such timidity, the clergy sent to him a letter 
urging the vigorous defense of their country and of their reli- 
gion. The letter was written by Yassian, the archbishop of 
Moscow, and was signed, on behalf of the clergy, by several 
of the higher ecclesiastics. We have not space to introduce 
the whole of this noble epistle, which is worthy of being held 
in perpetual remembrance. The following extracts will show 
its spirit. It was in the form of a letter from the archbishop 
to the king ; to which letter others of the clergy gave their 
assent : 

" It is our duty to announce the truth to kings, and that 
which I have already spoken in the ear of your majesty I now 
write, to inspire you with new courage and energ}^ When, 
influenced by the prayers and the councils of your bishop, you 
left Moscow for the army, with the firm intention of attacking 
the enemy of the Christians, we prostrated ourselves day and 
night before God, pleading with him to grant the victory to 
our armies. Nevertheless, we learn that at the approach of 
Akhmet, of that ferocious warrior who has already caused 
thousands of Christians to perish, and who menaces your 
throne and your country, you tremble before him — you im- 
plore peace of him, and send to him embassadors, while that 
impious warrior breathes only vengeance and despises your 
prayer. 

"Ah, grand prince, to what counselors have you lent your 
ear ? What men, unworthy of the name of Christian, have 
given you such advice ? Will you throw away your ai-ms and 
shamefully take to flight ? But reflect from what a height of 
grandeur your majesty will descend; to what a depth of hu- 
miliation you will fall ! Are you willing, oh prince, to sur- 
render Russia to fire and blood, your churches to pillage, your 
subjects to the sword of the enemy ? What heart is so insen- 



180 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

sible as not to be overwhelmed by the thought even of such a 
calamity ? 

" No ; we will trust in the all-powerful God ! No ; you 
will not abandon us ! You will blush at the name of a fuffi- 
tive, of being the betrayer of your country. Lay aside all 
fear. Redouble your confidence in God. Then one shall 
chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. 
There is no God like ours. Do you say that the oath, 
taken by your ancestors, binds you not to raise your arms 
against the khan ? But we, your metropolitan bishop, and all 
the other bishops, representatives of Jesus Christ, absolve you 
from that oath, extorted by force ; we all give you our bene- 
diction, and conjure you to march against Akhmet, who is but 
a brigand and an enemy of God. 

" God is a Father full of tenderness for his children. He 
knows when to punish and when to pardon. And if formerly 
he submerged Pharaoh to save the children of Israel, he will, 
in the same manner, save you and your people, if you purify 
your heart by penitence, for you are a man and a sinner. The 
penitence of a monarch is his sacred obligation to obey the 
laws of justice, to cherish his people, to renounce every act 
of violence, and grant pardon even to the guilty. It is thus 
that God will elevate you among us, as formerly he elevated 
Moses, Joshua and the other liberators of Israel, that Russia, 
a new Israel, may be delivered by you from the impious Akh- 
met, that other Pharaoh. 

" I pray you, grand prince, do not censure me for my 
feeble words, for it is written, ' Give instruction to a wise 
man and he will be yet wiser.'* So may it be. Receive our 
benediction, you and your children, all the nobles and chief- 
tains, and all your brave warriors, children of Jesus Christ. 
Amen." 

This letter, instead of giving the king offense, inspired 
him with new zeal and courage. He immediately abandoned 
* Proverbs of Solomon, ix. 9. 



THE ILLUSTRIOUS IVAN III. 181 

all idea of peace. A fortnight had now passed in comparative 
inaction, the Russians and Tartars menacing each other from 
opposite sides of the stream. The cold month of November 
had now come, and a thin coating of ice began to spread over 
the surface of the stream. It was evident that Akhmet was 
only waiting for the river to be frozen over, and that, in a few 
days, he would be able to cross at any point. The grand 
piince, seeing that the decisive battle could not much longer 
be deferred, ordered his troops, in the night, to make a 
change of position, that he might occupy the plains of Borosk 
as a field more favorable for his troops. But the Russian 
soldiers, still agitated by the fears which their sovereign had 
not been able to conceal, regarded this order as the signal for 
retreat. The panic spread from rank to rank, and, favored by 
the obscurity of the night, soon the whole host, in the wildest 
confusion, were in rapid flight. No efforts of the ofiicers 
could arrest the dismay. Before the morning, the Russian 
camp was entirely deserted, and the fugitives were rushing, 
like an inundation, up the valley of the Moskwa toward the 
imperial city. 

But God did not desert Russia in this decisive hour. He 
appears to have heard and answered the prayers which had 
so incessantly ascended. In the Russian annals, their pres- 
ervation is wholly attributed to the interposition of that God 
whose aid the bishops, the clergy and Christian men and 
women in hundreds of churches had so earnestly implored. 
Tlie Tartars, seeing, in the earliest dawn of the morning, the 
banks of the river entirely abandoned by the Russians, im- 
agined that the flight was but a ruse of war, that ambuscades 
were prepared for them, and, remembering previous scenes 
of exterminating slaughter, they, also, were seized with a 
panic, and commenced a retreat. This movement itself 
increased the alarm. Terror spread rapidly. In an hour, 
the whole Tartar host, abandoning their tents and their bag- 
gage, were in tumultuous flight. 



182 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

As the sun rose, an unprecedented spectacle was pre- 
sented. Two immense armies were flying from each other in 
indescribable confusion and dismay, each actually frightened 
out of its wits, and no one pursuing either. The Russians 
did not stop for a long breath until they attained the walls of 
Moscow. Akhmet, having reached the head waters of the 
Don, retreated rapidly down that stream, wreaking such 
vengeance as he could by the way, but not venturing to stop 
until he had reached his strongholds upon the banks of the 
Volga. Thus, singularly, providentially^ terminated this last 
serious invasion of Russia by the Tartars. A Russian annal- 
ist, in attributing the glory of this well-authenticated event 
all to God, writes : " Shall men, vain and feeble, celebrate the 
terror of their arms ? No ! it is not to the might of earth's 
warriors, it is not to human wisdom that Russia owes her 
safety, but only to the goodness of God." 

Ivan III., in the cathedrals of Moscow, offered long con- 
tinued praises to God for this victory, obtained without the 
effusion of blood. An annual festival was established in honor 
of this great event. Akhmet, with his troops disorganized 
and scattered, had hardly reached the Yolga, ere he was at- 
tacked by a rival khan, who drove him some five hundred 
miles south to the shore of the Sea of Azof. Here his rival 
overtook him, killed him with his own hand, took his wives 
and his daughters captives, seized all his riches, and then, 
seeking friendly relations with Russia, sent worCi to Moscow 
that the great enemy of the grand prince was in his grave. 

Thus terminated for ever the sway of the Tartars over the 
Russians. For two hundred years, Russia had been held by 
the khans in slavery. Though the horde long continued to 
exist as a band of lawless and uncivilized men, often engaged 
in predatory excursions, no further attempts were made to 
exact either tribute or homage. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE REIGN OFYASSILI 
From 1480 to 1533. 

A.'UAKCB WITH HUXGAEY. — A TeAVELEK FEOM GeEMAXT. — TREATY BETWEEN' EuSSIA 

AND Gekmant. — Embassage to Turkey. — Court Etiquette. — Death of the 
Princess SopniA. — Death of Ivax. — Advaxcemext op Kxowledge. — Succession 
OF Vassali. — Attack Upox' the Horde. — Rout of the Russians. — The Grand 
Prince Takes the Title of Emperor. — Turkish Envoy to Moscow. — Efforts to 
Ar.m Europe Agaixst the Turks. — Death of the Emperor Maximiliax', and 
Accession of Charles V. to the Empire of Germany. — Death of Vassili. 

f pHE retreat of the Tartars did not redound much to the 
-L glory of Ivan. The citizens of Moscow, in the midst of 
their rejoicings, were far from being satisfied with their sov^- 
ereign. They thought that he had not exhibited that courage 
wliich characterizes grand souls, and that he had been signally 
wanting in that devotion which leads one to sacrifice himself 
for the good of his country. They lavished, however, their 
praises upon the clergy, especially upon the Archbishop Vas- 
sian, whose letter to the grand prince was read and re-read 
throughout the kingdom with the greatest enthusiasm. This 
noble prelate, whose Christian heroism had saved his country, 
soon after fell sick and died, deplored by all Russia. 

Hungary was at this time governed by Matthias, son of 
the renowned Hunniades,* a prince equally renowned for his 
valor and his genius. Matthias, threatened by Poland, sent 
embassadors to Russia to seek alliance with Ivan III. Eager- 
ly Russia accepted the proposition, and entered into friendly 
connections with Hungary, which kingdom was then, in civil- 
ization, quite in advance of the northern empire. 
* See Empire of Austria, p. 71. 



184 THE EMriEE OP RUSSIA. 

In the year 1486, an illustrious cavalier, named Nicholas 
Poppel, visited Russia, taking a letter of introduction to the 
grand prince from Frederic III., Emperor of Germany. He 
had no particular mission, and was led only by motives of 
curiosity. " I have seen," said the traveler, " all the Chris- 
tian countries and all the kings, and I wished, also, to see 
Russia and the grand prince." 

The lords at Moscow had no faith in these words, and 
were persuaded that he was a spy sent by their enemy, the 
King of Poland. Though they watched him narrowly, he was 
not incommoded, and left the kingdom after having satisfied 
his desire to see all that was remarkable. His report to the 
German emperor was such that, two years after, he returned, 
in the quality of an embassador from Frederic IH., with a 
letter to Ivan III., dated Ulm, December 26th, 1488. The 
nobles now received Poppel with great cordiality. He said 
to them : 

"After having left Russia, I went to find the emperor and 
the princes of Germany at Nuremburg. I spent a long time 
giving them information respecting your country and the 
grand prince. I corrected the false impression, conceived by 
them, that Ivan III. was but the vassal of Casimir, King of 
Poland. ' That is impossible,' I said to them. * The monarch 
of Moscow is much more powerful and much richer than the 
King of Poland. His estates are immense, his people numer- 
ous, his wisdom extraordinary.' All the court listened to me 
with astonishment, and especially the emperor himself, who 
often invited me to dine, and passed hours with me convers- 
ing upon Russia. At length, the emperor, desiring to enter 
into an alliance with the grand prince, has sent me to the 
court of your majesty as his embassador." 

He then solicited, in the name of Frederic III., the hand 
of Ivan's daughter, Helen, for the nephew of the emperor, 
Albert, margrave of Baden. The proposition for the mar- 
riage of the daughter of the grand prince with a mere mar- 



THE PwEIGN OF VASSILI. 185 

grave was coldly received. Ivan, however^ sent an embassa- 
dor to Germany with the folio \ving instructions : 

" Should the emperor ask if the grand prince will consent 
to the marriage of his daughter with the margrave of Baden, 
reply that such an alliance is not worthy of the grandeur of 
the Russian monarch, brother of the ancient emj^erors of 
Greece, who, in establishing themselves at Constantinople, 
ceded the city of Rome to the popes. Leave the emperor, 
however, to see that there is some hope of success should he 
desire one of our princesses for his son, the King Maximilian," 

The Russian embassador was received in Germany with 
the most flattering attentions, even being conducted to a seat 
upon the throne by the side of the emperor. It is said that 
Maximilian, who was then a widower, wished to marry Helen, 
the daughter of the grand prince, but he wished, very natu- 
rally, first to see her through the eyes of his embassador, and 
to ascertain the amount of her dowry. To this request a 
polite refusal was returned. 

" How could one suppose," writes the Russian historian 
Karamsin, " that an illustrious monarch and a princess, his 
daughter, could consent to the affront of submitting the 
princess to the judgment of a foreign minister, who might 
declare her unworthy of his master ?" 

The pride of the Russian court was touched, and the 
emperor's embassador was informed, in very plain language, 
that the grand prince was not at all disposed to make a 
matter of merchandise of his daughter — that, after her mar- 
riage, the grand prince would present her with a dowry such 
as he should deem proportionate to the rank of the united 
pair, and that, above all, should she marry Maximilian, she 
should not change her religion, but should always have 
residing with her chaplains of the Greek church. Thus 
terminated the question of the marriage. A treaty, however, 
of alliance was formed between the two nations which was 
signed at Moscow, August 16th, 1490. In this treaty, Ivan 



18G THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

III. subscribes himself, " by the grace of God, monarch of 
all the Russias. prince of Yladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, 
Pskof, Yougra, Yiatha, Perme and Bulgaria." We thus see 
what j^ortion of the country was then deemed subject to his 
sway. 

Ivan III., continually occupied in extending, consolidating 
and developing the resources of his vast empire, could not 
but look with jealousy upon the encroachments of the Turks, 
who had already overrun all Greece, who had taken a large 
part of Hungary, and who were surging up the Danube in 
wave after wave of terrible invasion. Still, sound judgment 
taught him that the hour had not yet come for him to inter- 
pose ; that it was his present policy to devote all his energies 
to the increase of Russian wealth and power. It was a mat- 
ter of the first importance that Russia should enjoy the 
privileges of commerce with those cities of Greece now oc- 
cupied by the Turks, to which Russia had access through the 
Dnieper and the Don, and partially through the vast floods 
of the Yolga. But the Russian merchants were incessantly 
annoyed by the oppression of the lawless Turks. The follow- 
ing letter from Ivan III. to the Sultan Bajazet II., gives one 
a very clear idea of the relations existing between the two 
countries at that time. It is dated Moscow, August 31st, 
1492. 

" To Bajazet, Sultan, King of the princes of Turkey, 
Sovereign of the earth and of the sea, we, Ivan III., by the 
grace of God, only true and hereditary monarch of all the 
Russias, and of many other countiies of the North and of 
the East ; behold ! that which we deem it our duty to write 
to your majesty. We have never sent embassadors to each 
other with friendly greetings. Nevertheless, the Russian 
merchants have traversed your estates in the exercise of a 
traffic advantageous to both of our empires. Often they com- 
plain to me of the vexations they encounter from your magis- 
trates, but I have kept silence. The last summer, the pacha 



THE REIGN OF VASSILI. 187 

of Azof forced them to dig a ditch, and -to carry stones for 
the construction of the edifices of the city ; more than this, 
they have compelled our merchants of Azof and of Caffa to 
dispose of their merchandise for one half their value. If any 
one of the merchants happens to fall sick, the magistrates 
place seals upon the goods of all, and, if he dies, the State 
seizes all these goods, and restores but half if he recover. 
No regard is paid to the clauses of a will, the Turkish magis- 
trates recognizing no heii's but themselves to the propei'ty of 
the Russians. 

" Such glaring injustice has compelled me to forbid my 
merchants to engage in traffic in your country. From whence 
come these acts of violence ? Formerly these merchants paid 
only the legal tax, and they were permitted to trade without 
annoyance. Are you aware of this, or not ? One word more. 
Mahomet II., your father, was a prince of grandeur and re- 
nown. He wished, it is reported, to send to us embassadors, 
proposing friendly relations. Providence frustrated the exe- 
cution of this project. But why should we not now see the 
accomplishment of this plan ? We await your response." 

The Russian embassador received orders from Ivan III. to 
present his document to the sultan, standing, and not upon 
his knees, as was the custom in the Turkish court; he was not 
to yield precedence to the embassador of any other nation 
whatever, and was to address himself only to the sultan, and 
not to the pachas. Plestchief, the Russian envoy, obeyed his 
instructions to the letter, and by his haughty bearing excited 
the indignation of the Turkish nobles. The pacha of Constan- 
tinople received him with great politeness, loaded him with 
attentions, invited him to dine, and begged him to accept of a 
present of some rich dresses, and a purse of ten thousand 
sequins. The haughty Russian declined the invitation to 
dine, returning the purse and the robes with the ungracious 
response, 

"I have nothing to say to pachas. I have no need to 



188 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

wear their clothes, neither have I any need of their money. I 
wish only to speak to the sultan." 

Notwithstanding this arrogance, Bajazet II., the sultan, 
received Plestchiet* politely, and returned a conciliatory an- 
swer to the grand prince, promising the redress of those griev- 
ances of which he complained. The Turk was decidedly 
more civilized than the Christian. He wrote to Mengli Ghirei, 
the pacha of the Crimea, where most of these annoyances 
had occurred : 

" The monarch of Russia, with whom I desire to live in 
friendly relations, has sent to me a clown. I can not conse- 
quently allow any of my people to accompany him back to 
Russia, lest they should hud him offensive. Respected as I 
am from the east to the west, I blush in being exposed to such 
an affront. It is in consequence my wish that my son, the 
sultan of Caffa, should correspond directly with the grand 
prince of Moscow." 

With a sense of delicacy as attractive as it is rare, Bajazet 
II. refi'ained from complaining of the boorishness of the Rus- 
sian envoy, but wrote to the grand prince, Ivan III., in the fol- 
lowing courteous terms : 

" You have sent, in the sincerity of your soul, one of your 
lords to the threshold of my palace. He has seen me and has 
handed me your letter, which I have pressed to my heart, 
since you have expressed a desire to become my friend. Let 
your embassadors and your merchants no longer fear to fre- 
quent our country. They have only to come to certify to the 
veracity of all which your envoy will report to you from us. 
May God grant him a prosperous journey and the grace to 
convey to you our profound salutation — to you and to your 
friends; for those w^hom you love are equally dear to us." 

In the whole of this transaction the Turkish court appears 
for superior to the Russian in the refinements and graces of 
polished life. There seems to be something in a southern 
clime which ameliorates harshness of manners. The Grecian 



THE REIGN OF VASSILI. 189 

emperors, perhaps, in abandoning their palaces, left also to 
their conquerors that suavity which has transmitted even to 
oar day the enviable title of the "polished Greek." 

In the year 1503, Ivan III. lost his spouse, the Greek prin- 
cess Sophia. Her death affected the aged monarch deeply, 
and seriously impaired his health. Twenty-five years had now 
elapsed since lie received the young and beautiful princess as 
his bride, and during all these tumultuous years her genius 
and attractions had been the most brilliant ornament of his 
court. The infirmities of age pressed heavily upon the king, 
and it was manifest that his days could not much longer be 
prolonged. With much ceremony, in the presence of his 
lords, he dictated his will, declaring his oldest son Yassili to 
be his successor as monarch, and assigning to all his younger 
children rich possessions. The passion for the aggrandizement 
of Russia still glowed strongly in his bosom even in the hour 
of death. Yassili, though twenty-five years of age, was as 
yet unmarried. He decided to select his spouse from the 
daughters of the Russian nobles, and fifteen hundred of the 
most beautiful belles of the kingdom were brought to the 
court that the prince, from among them, might make his se- 
lection. The choice fell upon a maiden of exquisite beauty, 
of Tartar descent. Her father was an oflScer in the army, a 
son of one of the chiefs of the horde. The marriage was im- 
mediately consummated, and all Moscow was in a blaze of 
illumination, rejoicing over the nuptials of the heir to the 
crown. The decay of the aged monarch, however, advanced, 
^^J by day. His death, at last, was quite sudden, in the 
night of the 27th of October, 1505, at the age of sixty-six 
years and nine months, and at the close of a reign of forty 
three years and a half. 

Ivan III. will, through all ages, retain the rank of one of 
the most illustrious of the sovereigns of Russia. The excellen- 
cies of his character and the length of his reign, combined in 
enablirg him to give an abiding direction to the career of his 



190 THE EMPIRE OF E U S S I A . 

^country. He made his appearance on the political stage just 
in the time when a new system of government, favorable to 
the power of the sovereigns of Europe, was rising upon the 
ruins of feudalism. The royal authority was gaining rapidly 
in England and in France. Spain, freed from the domination 
of the Moors, had just become a power of the first rank. The 
fleets of Portugal were whitening the most distant seas, con- 
ferring upon the energetic kingdom wonderful wealth and 
power. Italy, though divided, exulted in her fleet, her mari- 
time wealth, and her elevation above all other nations in the 
arts, the sciences and the intrigues of politics. Frederic lY., 
Emperor of Germany, an inefiicient, apathetic man, was un- 
able to restore repose to the empire, distracted by civil war. 
His energetic son, Maximilian, was already meditating that 
political change which should give new strength to the mon- 
arch, and which finally raised the house of Austria to the 
highest point of earthly grandeur. Hungary, Bohemia and 
Poland, governed by near relatives, might almost be con- 
sidered as a single power, and they were, as by instinct, allied 
with Austria in endeavors to resist the encroachments of the 
Turks. 

Inventions and discoveries of the greatest importance were 
made in the world during the reign of Ivan III. Guttenburg 
and Faust in Strasbourg invented the art of printing. Chris- 
topher Columbus discovered the New World. Until then the 
productions of India reached central Europe through Persia, 
the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azof On the 20th of Novem- 
ber, 1497, Yasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Plope, 
thus opening a new route to the Indies, and adding immeas- 
urably to the enterprise and wealth of the world. Anew 
epoch seemed to dawn upon mankind, favorable at least to 
the tranquillity of nations, the progress of civilization and the 
strength of governments. Thus far Russia, in her remote se- 
clusion, had taken no part in the politics of Europe, It was 
not until the reign of Ivan III. that this great northern em- 



THE REIGN OF VASSILI» 191 

pire emerged from that state of chaos in which slie had neither 
possessed definfteness of form nor assured existence. 

Ivan III. found his nation in subjection to the Tartars. 
He threw off the yoke; became one of the most illustrious 
monarchs in Europe, commanding respect throughout Chris- 
tendom ; he took his position by the side of emperors and 
sultans, and by the native energies of his mind, unenlightened 
by study, he gave the wisest precepts for the internal and the 
external government of his realms. But he was a rude, stern 
man, the legitimate growth of those savage times. It is re- 
corded that a single angry look from him would make any 
woman faint ; that at the table the nobles trembled before 
him, not daring to utter a word. 

Yassili now ascended the throne, and with great energy 
carried out the principles established by his father. The first 
important measure of the new monarch was to fit out an ex- 
pedition against the still powerful but vagabond horde at 
Kezan, on the Volga, to punish them for some acts of insub- 
ordination. A powerful armament descended the Volo-a in 
barges. The infantry landed near Kezan on the 22d of May, 
1506. The Tartars, with a numerous array of cavalry, were 
ready to receive their assailants, and fell upon them with such 
impetuosity and courage that the Russians were overpow- 
ered, and driven back, with much slaughter, to their boats. 
They consequently retreated to await the arrival of the cav- 
alry. The Tartars, imagining that the foe, utterly discom- 
fited, had fled back to Moscow, surrendered themselves to 
excessive joy. A month passed away, and on the 22d of June 
an immense assemblage of uncounted thousands of Tartars 
were gathered in festivity on the plains of Arsk, which spread 
around their capital city. More than a thousand tents were 
spread upon the field. Merchants from all parts were gathered 
there displaying their goods, and a scene of festivity and splen- 
dor was exhibited, such as modern civilization has never par- 
alleled. 



192 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA, 

Suddenly the Russian army, horse and infantry, were seen 
upon the plain, as if they had dropped from the clouds. They 
rnshed upon the encampment, cutting down the terrified mul- 
titude, with awful butchery, and trampling them beneath their 
horses' feet. The fugitives, in dismay, sought to regain the 
city, crushing each other in their flight and in the desperate 
endeavor to crowd in at the gates and along the narrow streets. 
The Kussians, exhausted by their victory, and lured by the 
luxuries which filled the tents, instead of taking the city by 
storm, as, in the confusion they probably could have done, 
surrendered themselves to pillage and voluptuous indulgence. 
They found the tents filled with food, liquors of all kinds and 
a great quantity of precious commodities, and forgetting they 
were in the presence of an enemy, they plunged into the 
wildest excesses of festivity and wassail. 

The disgraceful carousal was briefly terminated during the 
night, but renewed, with additional zest, in the morning. The 
songs and the shouts of the drunken soldiers were heard in 
the streets of Kezan, and, from the battlements, the Tartars 
beheld these orgies, equaling the most frantic revels of pagan 
bacchanals. The Tartar khan, from the top of a bastion, 
watched the spectacle, and perceiving the negligence of his 
enemies, prepared for a surprise and for vengeance. On the 
25th of June, just at the dawn of day, the gates were thrown 
open, and twenty thousand horsemen and thirty thousand in- 
fantry precipitated themselves with frightful yells upon the 
Russians, stupefied with sleep and wine. Though the Rus- 
sians exceeded the Tartars two to one, yet they fled towards 
their boats like a flock of sheep, without order and without 
arms. The plain was speedily strewn with their dead bodies 
and crimsoned with their blood. Too much terrified to think 
even of resistance, they clambered into their barges, cut the 
cables, and pushed out into the stream. But for the valor of 
the Russian cavalry all would have been destroyed. In the 
deepest humiliation the fugitives returned to Moscow. 



THE EEIGN OF VASSILI. 193 

Vassili resolved upon another expedition which should 
inflict signal vengeance upon the horde. But while he was 
making his preparations, the khan, terrified in view of the 
storm which was gathering, sent an embassage to Moscow 
imploring pardon and peace, offering to deliver up all the 
prisoners and to take a new oath of homage to the grand 
prince. Vassili, who was just on the eve of a war with 
Poland, with alacrity accepted these concessions. The Kino* 
of Poland ha(^ heard, with much joy, of the death of Ivan III,, 
whose energetic arm he had greatly feared, and he now hoped 
to take advantage of the youth and inexperien-ce of Vassili. 
A harassing warfare was commenced between Russia and Po- 
land, which raged for several years. Peace was finally made, 
Russia extorting from Poland several important provinces. 

In the year 1514, Vassili, entering into a treaty with Max- 
imilian, the Emperor of Germany, laid aside the title of grand 
prince and assumed for himself that of emperor, which was 
Kayser in the German language and Tzar in the Russian. 
With great energy Vassili pushed the work of concentrating 
and extending his empire, every year strengthening his power 
over the distant principalities. Bajazet II., the Turkish sul- 
tan, the victim of a conspiracy, was dethroned by his son 
Selim. Vassili, wishing, for the sake of commerce, to main- 
tain friendly relations with Turkey, sent an embassador to 
the new sultan. The embassador, Alexeief, was authorized 
to make all proper protestations of friendship, but to be very 
cautious not to compromit the dignity of his sovereign. He 
was instructed not to prostrate himself before the sultan, as 
was the oriental custom, but merely to offer his hands. He 
was to convey rich presents to Sehm, with a letter from the 
Russian court, but was by no means to enquire for the health 
of the sultan, unless the sultan should first enquire for the 
health of the emperor. 

Notwithstanding these chilling punctilios, Selim received 
the Russian embassador with much cordiality, and sent back 

9 



194 THE EMFIEE OF RUSSIA. 

With him a Turkish embassador to the court of Moscow. 
Nine months, from August to May, were occupied in the 
weary journey. While traversing the vast deserts of Vero- 
nage, their horses, exhausted and starving, sank beneath 
them, and they were obUged to toil along for weary leagues 
on foot, suffering from the want both of food and water. 
They nearly perished before reaching the frontiers of Rezan, 
but here they found horses and retinue awaiting them, sent by 
Yassili. Upon their arrival at Moscow, the Turkish embassa- 
dor was received with great enthusiasm. It was deemed an 
honor, as yet unparalleled in Russia, that the terrible con- 
querors of Constantinople, before whose arms all Christendom 
was trembling, should send an embassador fifteen hundred 
miles to Moscow to seek the alliance of the emperor. 

The Turkish envoy was received with great magnificence 
by Vassili, seated upon his throne, and surrounded by his 
nobles clad in robes of the most costly furs. The embassador, 
Theodoric Kamal, a Greek by birth, with the courtesy of the 
polished Greek, kneeling, kissed the hand of the emperor, 
presented him the letter of his master, the sultan, beautifully 
written upon parchment in Arabic letters, and assured the 
emperor of the wish of the sultan to live with him in eternal 
friendship. But the Turk, loud in protestations, was not dis- 
posed to alliance. It was evident that the oflSce of a spy 
constituted the most important part of the mission of Kamal. 
This embassador had but just left the court of Moscow 
when another appeared, from the Emperor Maximilian, of 
Germany. The message with which the Baron Herberstein 
was commissioned from the court of Vienna to the court of 
Moscow is sufficiently important to be recorded. 

" Ought not sovereigns," said the embassador, " to seek 
the glory of religion and the happiness of their subjects? 
Such are the principles which have ever guided the emperor. 
If he has waged war, it has never been from the love of false 
glory, nor to seize the territories of others, but to punish 



THE EEIGN OF VASSILI. 195 

those who have dared to provoke him. Despising danger, he 
has been seen in battle, exposing himself like the humblest 
soldier, and gaining victories against superior forces because 
the Almighty lends his arm to aid the virtuous. 

*' The Emperor of Germany is now reposing in the bosom 
of tranquillity. The pope and all the princes of Italy have 
become his allies. Spain, Naples, Sicily and twenty-six other 
realms recognize his giandson, Charles Y., for their legitimate 
and hereditary monarch. The King of Portugal is attached 
to him by the ties of relationship, and the King of England 
by the bonds of sincere friendship. The sovereigns of Den- 
mark and Hungai-y have married the grand-daughters of 
Maximilian, and the King of Poland testifies to unbounded 
confidence in him. I will not speak of your majesty, for the 
Emperor of Russia Avell knows how to appreciate the senti- 
ments of the Emperor of Germany. 

" The King of France and the republic of Venice, influ- 
enced by selfish interests, and disregarding the prosperity of 
Christianity, have taken no part in this fraternal alliance of 
all the rest of Europe ; but they are now beginning to mani- 
fest a love for peace, and I have just learned that a treaty is 
about to be concluded with them, also. Let any one now 
cast a glance over the world and he will see but one Christian 
prince who is not attached to the Emperor Maximilian either 
by the ties of friendship or afiection. All Christian Europe 
is in profound peace excepting Russia and Poland. 

"Maximilian has sent me to your majesty, illustrious 
monarch, to entreat you to restore repose to Christianity and 
to your states. Peace causes empires to flourish ; war de- 
stroys their resources and hastens their downfall. Who can 
be sure of victory ? Fortune often frustrates the wisest plans. 
"Thus far I have spoken in the name of my master. I 
I wish now to add, that on my journey I have been informed, 
by the Turkish embassador himself, that the sultan has just 
captured Damascus, Jerusalem and all Egypt. A traveler, 



196 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

worthy of credence, has confirmed this deplorable intelligence. 
If, before these events, the power of the sultan inspired us 
with just' fear, ought not this success of his arms to augment 
our apprehensions ?" 

Russia and Poland had long been engaged in a bloody 
frontier war, each endeavoring to wrest provinces from the 
other ; but Russia was steadily on the advance. The embas- 
sage of Maximilian was not productive of peace. On the 
contrary, Yassili immediately sent an embassador to Vienna 
to endeavor to secure the aid of Austria in his war with Po- 
land. Maximilian received the envoy with very extraordinary 
marks of favor. He was invited to sit, in the presence of the 
emperor, with his hat upon his head, and whenever the em- 
bassador, during the conference, mentioned the name of the 
Russian emperor, Maximilian uncovered his head in token of 
respect. The great object of Maximilian's ambition was to 
arm all Europe against the Turks ; and he was exceedingly 
anxious to secure the cooperation of a power so energetic as 
that of Russia had now proved herself to be. Even then 
with consummate foresight he wrote : 

- " The integrit) of Poland is indispensable to the general 
interests of Europe. The grandeur of Russia is becoming 

dangerous." 

Maximilian soon sent another embassador to Moscow, who 
very forcibly described the conquests made by the Turks in 
Europe, Asia and Africa, from the Thracian Bosporus to 
the sands of Egypt, and from the mountains of Caucasia to 
Venice. He spoke of the melancholy captivity of the Greek 
church, which was the mother of Russian Christianity ; of the 
profanation of the holy sepulcher ; of Nazareth, Bethlehem 
and Sinai, which had fallen under the domination of the Turk. 
He suggested that the Turks, in possession of the Tauride— 
as the country upon the north shore of the Black Sea, bound- 
ed by the Dnieper and the Sea of Azof was then called-- 
threatened the independence of Russia herself; that Vassili 



THE REIGN OF VASSILI. 19Y 

had every thing to fear from the ferocity, the perfidy and the 
success of Selini, who, stained with the blood of his father 
and his three brothers, dared to assume the title of master of 
the world. He entreated Yassili, as one of the most power- 
ful of the Chiislian princes, to follow the banner of Jesus 
Christ, and to cease to make war upon Poland, thus exhaust- 
ing the Christian powers. 

Maximilian died before his embassador returned, and thus 
these negotiations were interrupted. But Russia was then 
all engrossed with the desire of obtaining provinces from 
Poland. Turkey was too formidable a foe to think of as- 
sailing, and the idea at that time of wresting any territory 
from Turkey was preposterous. All Europe combined could 
only hope to check 2inj further advance of the Moslem cime- 
ters. Influenced by these considerations, Vassili sent another 
embassador to Constantinople to propose a treaty with Selim, 
which might aid Russia in the strife with her hereditary 
rival. The sultan, glad of any opportunity to weaken the 
Christian powers, ordered his pachas to harass Poland in 
every possible way on the south, thus enabling Russia more 
easily to assail the distracted kingdom on the north. The 
King of Poland, Sigismond, was in consternation. 

Poland was united with Rome in religion. The pope, 
Leo X., anxious to secure the cooperation of both Poland 
and Russia against the Turks, who were the great foe 
Cliristianity had most to dread, proposed that the King of 
Poland, a renowned wanior, should be entrusted with the 
supreme command of the Christian armies, and adroitly sug- 
gested to Yassili, that Constantinople was the legitimate 
heritage of a Russian monarch, who was the descendant of 
a Grecian princess ; that^ it was sound policy for him to turn 
his attention to Turkey ; for Poland, being a weaker power, 
and combined of two discordant elements, the original Po- 
land and Lithuania, would of neccessity be gradually ab- 
sorbed by the orowtli of Russia. 



J98 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Yassili hated the pope, because he had ordered Te Deums 
in Rome, in celebration of a victory which the Poles had ob- 
tained over the Russians, and had called the Russians heretics. 
But still the bait the pope presented was too alluring not to 
be caught at. In the labyrinthine mazes of politics, however, 
there were obstacles to the development of this policy which 
years only could remove. 

Upon the death of Maximilian, Charles Y. of Spain as- 
cended the throne of the German empire, and established a 
power, the most formidable that had been known in Europe 
for seven hundred years, that is, since the age of Charle- 
raacrne. Yassili was in the midst of these plans of aggran- 
dizement when death came with its unexpected summons. 
He was in the fifty-fourth year of his age, with mental and 
physical vigor unimpaired. A small pimple appeared on his 
left thigh, not larger than the head of a pin, but from its 
commencement attended with excruciating pain. It soon 
resolved itself into a malignant ulcer, which rapidly exhausted 
all the vital energies. The dying king was exceedingly anx- 
ious to prepare himself to stand before the judgment seat of 
God. He spent days and nights in prayer, gave most affec- 
tionate exhortations to all around him to live for heaven, as- 
sumed monastic robes, resolving that, should he recover, he 
would devote himself exclusively to the service of God. It 
was midnight the 3d of December, 1533. The king had just 
partaken of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Suddenly 
his tongue was paralyzed, his eyes fixed, his hands dropped 
by his side, and the metropolitan bishop, who had been ad- 
ministering the last rites of religion, exclaimed, " It is all 
over. The king is dead." 




CHAP TEE XII. 

IVAN IV.—HIS MIKORITT. 
Prom 1533 to 1546. 

Vassili at the Chase. — Attention to Distinguished Fobeigners. — ^The Autocracy. 
— Splendor of the Edifices. — Slavery. — Aristocracy.— Infancy of Ivan IV. — 
Eegency of Helene.— Conspiracies and Tumults. — War with Sigismond of 
Poland. — Death of Helens. — Struggles of the Nobles. — Appalling Suffer- 
ings OF Dmitri.— Incursion op the Tartars. — Successful Conspiracy. — Ivan 
IV. AT the Chase. — Coronatiojj of Ivan IV. 

TTNDER Yassili, the Russian court attained a degree of 
^ splendor which had before been unknown. The Baron 
of Herberstein thus describes the appearance of the monarch 
when engaging in the pleasures of the chase : 

" As soon as we saw the monarch entering the field, we 
dismounted and advanced to meet him on foot. He was 
mounted upon a magnificent charger, gorgeously caparisoned. 
He wore upon his head a tall cap, embroidered with precious 
stones, and surmounted by gilded plumes which waved in the 
wind. A poignard and two knives were attached to his gir- 
dle. He had upon his right, Aley, tzar of Kazan, armed with 
a bow and arrows; at his left, two young princes, one of 
whom held an ax, and the other a number of arms. His suite 
consisted of more than tliree hundred cavaliers." 

The chase was continued, over the boundless plains, for 
many days and often weeks. AVhen night approached, the 
whole party, often consisting of thousands, dismounted and 
reared their village of tents. The tent of the emperor was 
ample, gorgeous, and furnished with all tlie appliances of lux- 
ary. Hounds were first introduced into these sports in Rus- 
sia by Yassili. The evening hours were passed in festivity, 



200 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

with abundance of good cheer, and in narrating the adven- 
tures of the day. 

Whenever the emperor appeared in public, he was pre- 
ceded by esquires chosen from among the young nobles 
distinguished for their beauty, the deUcacy of their features 
and the perfect proportion of their forms. Clothed in robes 
of white satin and armed with small hatchets of silver, they 
marched before the emperor, and appeared to strangers, say 
his cotemporaries, " like angels descended from the skies." 

Yassili was especially fond of magnificence in the audiences 
which he gave to foreign embassadors. To impress them with 
an idea of the vast population and wealth of Russia, arid of 
the glory and power of the sovereign, Vassili ordered, on the 
day of presentation, that all the ordinary avocations of life 
should cease, and the citizens, clothed in their richest dresses, 
were to crowd around the walls of the Kremlin. All the 
young nobles in the vicinity, with their retinues, were sum- 
moned. The troops were under arras, and tlie most distin- 
guished officers, glittering in the panoply of war, rode to 
meet the envoys.* In the hall of audience, crowded to its 
utmost capacity, there was silence, as of the grave. The 
king sat upon his throne, his bonnet upon one side of him, his 
scepter upon the other. His nobles were seated around upon 
couches draped in purple and embroidered with pearls and 
gold. 

Following the example of Ivan III., Vassili was unwearied 
in his endeavors to induce foreigners of distinction, particu- 
larly artists, physicians and men of science, to take up their 
residence in Russia. Any stranger, distinguished for geniua 
or capability of any kind, who entered Russia, found it not 
easy to leave the kingdom. A Greek physician, of much 
celebrity, from Constantinople, visited Moscow. Vassili could 

* Francis da Callo relates that when he was received by the emperor, 
forty thousand soldiers were under arms, in the richest uniform, extending 
from the Kremlin to the hotel of the embassadors. 



IVAN IV. — HIS MINORITY. 201 

not find it in his heart to relinquish so rich a prize, and 
detained him with golden bonds, which the unhappy man, 
mourning for his wife and children, in vain endeavored to 
break away. At last the sultan was influenced to write in 
behalf of the Greek. 

*' Permit," he wrote, " Marc to return to Constantinople to 
rejoin his family. He went to Russia only for a temj^orary 
vi.sit." 

The emperor replied : 

"For a long time Marc has served me to his and my 
perfect satisfaction. He is now my lieutenant at Novgorod. 
Send to him his wife and children." 

The power of the sovereign was absolute. His will was 
the supreme law. The lives, the fortunes of the clergy, the 
laity, the lords, the citizens were dependent upon his pleasure. 
The Russians regarded their monarch as the executor of the 
divine will. Their ordinary language was, God and the 
lyrince decree it. The Russians generally defend this autoc- 
racy as the only true principle of government. The philoso- 
phic Karamsin writes : 

"Ivan in. and Yassili knew how to establish perm:i- 
nently the nature of one government by constituting in au- 
tocracy the necessary attribute of empire, its sole constitution, 
and the only basis of safety, force and prosperity. This 
limitless power of the prince is regarded as tyranny in the 
eye of strangers, because, in their inconsiderate judgment, 
they forget that tyranny is the abuse of autocracy, and that 
the same tyranny may exist in a republic when citizens or 
powerful magistrates oppress society. Autocracy does not 
signify the absence of laws, since law is everywhere where 
there is any duty to be performed, and the first duty of 
princes, is it not to watch over the happiness of their people ?" 

To the traveler, in the age of Vassili, Russia appeared like 
a vast desert compared with the other countries of Europe. 
The sparseness of the habitations, the extended plains, dense 

9* 



202 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

forests and roads, rough and desolate, attested that Russia was 
still in the cradle of its civilization. But as one approached 
Moscow, the signs of animated life rapidly increased. Con- 
voys crowded the grand route, which traversed vast prairies 
waving wdth grain and embellished with all the works of 
industry. In the midst of this plain rose the majestic domes 
and glittering towers of Moscow. The convents, in massive 
piles, scattered around, resembled beautiful villages. The 
palace of the Kremlin alone, was a city in itself. Around this, 
as the nucleus, but spreading over a wide extent, were the 
streets of the metropolis, the palaces of the nobles, the man- 
sions of the wealthy citizens and the shops of the artisans. 
The city in that day was, indeed, one of "magnificent dis- 
tances," almost every dwelhng being surrounded by a garden 
in luxurious cultivation. In the year 1520, the houses, by 
count, which was ordered by the grand prince, amounted to 
forty-one thousand five hundred. 

The metropolitan bishop, the grand dignitaries of the 
court, the princes and lords occupied splendid mansions of 
wood reared by Grecian and Italian architects in the environs 
of the Kremlin. On wide and beautiful streets there were a 
large number of very magnificent churches also built of wood. 
The bazaars or shops, filled with the rich merchandise of 
Europe and of Asia, were collected in one quarter of the 
city, and were surrounded by a high stone wall as a protec- 
tion against the armies, domestic or foreign, which were ever 
sweeping over the land. 

From the eleventh to the sixteenth century, slavery may 
be said to have been universal in Russia. Absolutely every 
man but the monarcli was a slave. The hicrhest nobles and 
princes avowed themselves the slaves of the monarch. There 
was no law but the will of the sovereign. He could deprive 
any one of property and of life, and there was no power to 
call him to account but the poignard of the assassin or the 
sword of rebellion. In like manner the peasant serfs were 



IVAN IV. — HIS MINORITY. 203 

slaves of the nobles, with no privileges whatever, except such 
as the humanity or the selfishness of their lords might grant 
But gradually custom, controlling public opinion, assumed 
almost the form of law. The kings established certain rules 
for the promotion of industry and the regulation of commerce. 
Merchants and scholars attained a degree of practical inde- 
pendence which was based on indulgence rather than any 
constitutional right, and, during the reign of Yassili, the law 
alone could doom the serf to death, and he began to be 
regarded as a man^ as a citizen protected by the laws.* 
From this time we begin to see the progress of humanity and 
of higher conceptions of social life. It is, perhaps, worthy of 
record that anciently the peasants or serfs were universally 
designated by the name smerdi^ which simply means smelling 
offensively. Is the exhalation of an ofiensive odor the neces- 
sary property of a people imbruted by poverty and filth ? In 
America that unpleasant effluvium has generally been consid- 
ered a peculiarity pertaining to the colored race. Philosophic 
observation may show that it is a disease, the result of un- 
cleanliness, but, like other diseases, often transmitted from 
the guilty parent to the unoffending child. We have known 
white peeple who were exceedingly offensive in this respect, 
and colored people who were not so at all. 

The pride of illustrious birth was carried to the greatest 
extreme, and a noble would blush to enter into any friendly 
relations whatever with a plebeian. The nobles considered 
all business degrading excepting war, and spent the weary 
months, when not under arms, in indolence in their castles. 
The young women of the higher families were in a deplorable 
state of captivity. Etiquette did not allow them to mingle 
with society, or even to be seen except by their parents, and 
they had no employment except sewing or knitting, no mental 
culture and no sources of amusement. It was not the custom 
for the young men to choose their wives, but the father of 
* Karamsin, tome viL, page 265. 



204 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the maiden selected some eligible match for his daughter, and 
made propositions to the family of his contemplated son in- 
law, stating the dowry he would confer upon the bride, and. 
the parties were frequently married without ever having pre- 
viously seen each other. 

The death of Vassili transmitted the crown to his only son, 
Ivan, an infant but three years of age. By the will of the 
dying monarch, the regency, during the minority of the child, 
was placed in the hands of the youthful mother, the princess 
Helene. The brothers of Vassili and twenty nobles of dis- 
tinction were appointed as counselors for the queen regent. 
Two men, however, in concert with Helene, soon took the 
reins of government into their own hands. One of these 
was a sturdy, ambitious old noble, Michel Glinsky, an unole 
of Helene ; the other was a young and handsome prince, Ivan 
Telennef, who was suspected of tender liaisons with his royal 
mistress. 

The first act of the new government was to assemble all 
the higher clergy in the church of the Assumption, where the 
metropolitan bishop gave his benediction to the child destined 
to reign over Russia, and who was there declared to be ac- 
countable to God only for his actions. At the same time em- 
bassadors were sent to all the courts of Europe to announce 
the death- of Vassili and the accession of Ivan IV. to the 
throne. 

But a week passed after these ceremonies ere the prince 
Youri, one of the brothers of Vassili, was arrested, charged 
with conspiracy to wrest the crown from his young nephew. 
He was thrown into pi'ison, where he was left to perish by the 
slow torture of starvation. This severity excited great terror 
in Moscow. The Russians, ever strongly attached to their 
sovereigns, now found themselves under the reign of an oli- 
garchy which they detested. Conspiracies and rumors of con« 
spiracles agitated the court. Many were arrested upon sus- 
picion alone, and, cruelly chained, were thrown into dungeons. 



I Y A N IV . — H IS MINORITY. 20i 

Michel Glinsky, indignant at the shameful intimacy evidently 
existing between Helene and Telennef, ventured to remon- 
strate with the regent boldly and earnestly, assuring her that 
the eyes of the court were scrutinizing her conduct, and that 
such vice, disgraceful anywhere, was peculiarly hideous upon 
a throne, where all looked for examples of virtue. The auda- 
cious noble, though president of the council, was immediately 
arrested under an accusation of treason, and was thrown into 
a dungeon, where, soon after, he was assassinated. A reign 
of terror now commenced, and imprisonment and death await- 
ed all those who undertook in any way to thwart the plans of 
Helene and Telennef. 

Andre, the youngest of the brothers of Yassili, a man of 
feeble character, now alone remained of the royal princes at 
court. He was nominally the tutor of his nephew, the young 
emperor, Ivan IV., and though a prominent member of the 
council which Vassili had established, he had no influence in 
the government which had been grasped so energetically and 
despotically by Helene and her paramour Telennef. At length 
Andre, trembling for his own life, timidly raised the banners 
of revolt, and gathered quite an army around him. But he 
had no energy to conduct a war. He was speedily taken, and, 
loaded with chains, was thrown into a dungeon, where, after 
a few weeks of most cruel deprivations, he miserably perished. 
Thirty of the lords, implicated with him in the rebellion, were 
hung upon the trees around Novgorod. Many others were 
put to torture and perished on the rack. Helene, surrender- 
ing herself to the dominion of guilty love, developed the fero- 
city of a tigress. 

Sigismond, King of Poland, taking advantage of the gen- 
eral discontent of the Russians under the sway of Helene, 
formed an alliance with the horde upon the lower waters of 
the Don, and invaded Russia, burning and destroying with 
raercilessriess which demons could not have surpassed. Prince 
Telennef headed an army to repel them. The pen wearies in 



206 TUE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

describing the horrors of these scenes. One hundred thou- 
Biind Russians are now flying before one hundred and fifty 
thousand Pohmders. Hundreds of miles of territory are rav^ 
agod. Cities and villages are stormed, plundered, burned ; 
women and children are cut down and trampled beneath the 
feet of cavalry, or escape shrieking into the forests, where they 
perish of exposure and starvation. But an army of recruits 
comes to the aid of the Russians. And now one hundred and 
fifty thousand Polanders are driven before two hundred thou- 
sand Russians. They sweep across the frontier like dust 
driven by the tornado. And now the cities and villages of 
Poland blaze ; Iier streams run red with blood. The Polish 
wives and daughters in their turn struggle, shriek and die. 
From exhaustion the wai-fare ceases. The two antagonists, 
moaning and bleeding, wait for a few years but to recover 
sufiicent strength to renew the strife, and then the brutal, de- 
moniac butchery commences anew. Such is the history of man. 
In this brief, but bloody war, the city of Staradoub, in 
Russia, was besieged by an army of Poles and Tartars. The 
assault was urged with the most desperate energy and fear- 
lessness. The defense was conducted with equal ferocity. 
Thousands fell on both sides in every mangled form of death. 
At last the besiegers undermined the walls, and plac'ng be- 
neath hundreds of barrels of gunpowder, as with the burst of 
a volcano, uphove the massive bastions to the clouds. They 
fell in a storm of ruin upon the city, setting it on fire in 
many places. Through the flames and over the smouldering 
ruins, Poles and Tartars, blackened with smoke and smeared 
\vilh blood, rushed into the city, and in a few hours thirteen 
thous:ind of the inhabitants were weltering in their gore. 
Xone were led alive. And this is but a specimen of the 
wars which raged for ages. The world now has but the 
faintest conception of the seas of blood and woe through 
which humanity has waded to attain even its present feeble 
recoixnition of fraternitv. 



IVAN IV. — HIS MINORITY. 20V 

In tl)is, as in every war with Poland, Russia was gaining, 
ever wresting from her rival the provinces of Lithuania, and 
attaching them to the gigantic empire. In the year 1534, 
Helene commenced the enterprise of surrounding the whole 
of Moscow with a ditch, and a wall capable of resisting the 
batterings of artillery. An Italian engineer, named Petrok 
Maloi, superintended these works. The foundation of the 
walls was laid with imposing religious ceremonies. The wall 
was crowned with four towers at the opening of the four 
gates. Helene was so conscious of the importance of aug- 
menting the population of Russia, that she offered land and 
freedom from taxes for a term of years to all who would mi- 
grate into her territory from Poland. Perhaps also she had a 
double object, wishing to weaken a rival power. Much coun- 
terfeit coin was found to be in circulation. The regent issued 
an edict, that any one found guilty of depreciating the cur- 
rent standard of coin, should be punished with death, and 
this death was to be barbarously inflicted by first cutting off 
the hands of the culprit, and then pouring melted lead through 
a tunnel down his throat. 

On the 3d of April, 1538, Helene, in the prime of life, and 
with all her sins in full vigor and unrepented, retired to her 
bed at night, suddenly and seriously sick. Some one had 
succeeded in administering to her a dose of poison. She 
shrieked for a few hours in mortal agony, and soon after the 
hour of twelve was tolled, her spirit ascended to meet God in 
judgment. Being dead, she had no favors to confer and no 
terrors to execute ; and her festering remains were the same 
day hurried ignominiously to the grave. Her paramour, 
Teleimof, alone wept over her death. Russia rejoiced, and 
yet with trembling. Whose strong arm would now seize the 
helm of the tempest-torn ship of State, no one could tell. 

The young prince, Ivan IV., was but seven years of age 
at the death of his mother Helene. For several days there 
was ominous silence in Moscow, the stillness which precedes 



208 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

the storm. The death of the regent had come so suddenly, 
so unexpectedly, that none were prepared for it. A week 
passed away, during which time parties were forming and 
conspiracies ripening, while Telennef was desperately en- 
deavoring to retain that power which he had so despotically 
wielded in conjunction with his royal mistress. The prince 
Vassili Schouisky, who had occupied the first place in the 
councils of Vassili, opened the drama. Having secured the 
cooperation of a large number of nobles, he declared himself 
tlie head of the government, arrested all the favorites of 
lielene, and threw Telennef, bound with chains, into a dun 
geon. There he was left to die of starvation — barbarity, 
which, though in accordance with that brutal age, even all 
the similar excesses of Telennef could not justify. The 
beautiful sister of Telennef, Agrippene by name, was torn 
from the saloons her loveliness had embellished, and was im- 
prisoned for life in a convent. The victims of the cruelty of 
Helene, who were still languishing in prison, were set at 
liberty. 

Schouisky was a widower, and in the fiftieth year of his 
age. He wished to strengthen his power by engaging the 
cooperation of the still formidable energies of the horde at 
Kezan, and accordingly married, quite hurriedly, the daughter 
of the czar of the horde. But the regal diadem proved to him 
-but a crown of thorns. Conspiracy succeeded conspiracy, and 
Schouisky felt compelled to enlist all the terrors* of the dun- 
geon, the scaffold and the block to maintain his place. Six 
months only passed away, ere he too was writhing upon the 
royal couch in the agonies of death, whether paralyzed by 
poison or smitten by the hand of God, the day of judgment 
alone can reveal. 

Ivan Schouisky, the brother of the deceased usurper, now 
stepped into the dangerous post which death had so suddenly 
rendered vacant. He was a weak man, assuming the most 
pompous airs, quite unable to discriminate between impos- 



IVAN IV. HIS MINORITY. 209 

ing grandeur and ridiculous parade. He soon became both 
despised and detested. This state of things encouraged the 
two hordes of Kezan and Tauride to unite, and with an army 
of a hundred thousand men they penetrated Russia almost 
unopposed, burning and plundering in all directions. 

Under these circumstances the metropolitan bishop, Joseph, 
a man of sincere piety and of very elevated character, and who 
enjoyed in the highest degree the confidence both of the aris- 
tocracy and of the people, presented himself before the coun- 
cil, urged the incapacity of Ivan Schouisky to govern, and 
proposed that Ivan Belsky, a nobleman of great energy and 
moral worth, should be chosen regent. The proposal was 
carried by acclamation. So unanimous was the vote, so cor- 
dial was the adoption of the republican principle of election, 
that Ivan Schouisky was powerless and was merely dismissed. 

The new regent, sustained by the clergy and the aristoc- 
racy, governed the State with wisdom and moderation. All 
kinds of persecution ceased, and vigorous measures were 
adopted for the promotion of the public welfare. Old abuses 
were repressed ; vicious governors deposed, an J the rising 
flames of civil strife were quenched. Even the hitherto un- 
heard-of novelty of trial by jury was introduced. Jurors were 
chosen from among the most intelligent citizens. Though 
there was some bitter opposition among the corrupt nobles to 
these salutary reforms, the clergy, as a body, sustained them, 
and so did also even a majority of the lords. It was Chris- 
tianity and the church which introduced these humanizing 
measures. 

Among the innumerable tragedies of those days, let one 
be mentioned illustrative of the terrific wronijs to which all 
are exposed under a despotic government. There was a 
young prince, Dmitri, a child, grandson of Yassili the blind, 
whose claims to the throne were feared. He was thrown into 
prison and there forgotton. For forty-nine years he had now 
remained in a damp and dismal dungeon. He had committed 



210 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

no crime. He was accused of no crime. It was only feared 
that reslive nobles might use him as an instrument for the 
furtherance of their plans. All the years of youth and of 
manhood had passed in darkness and misery. 'No beam of 
the sun ever penetrated his tomb. All unheeded the tides 
of life suiged in the world above him, while his mind with his 
body was wasting away iu the long agony. 

" who can tell what days, what nights he spent, 
Of tideless, waveless, sailless, shoreless woe." 

Mercy now entered his cell, but it was too late even for that 
angel visitant to bring a gleam of joy. His friends w^ere all 
dead. His name was forgotten on earth. He knew nothing 
of the world or of its w\ays. His mind was enfeebled, and 
even the slender stock of knowledge which he had possessed 
as a child, had vanished away. They broke off his chains and 
removed him from his dunsfeon to a comfortable chamber. 
The poor old man, dazzled by the light and bewildered by 
the change, lingered joylessly and without a smile for a few 
weeks and died. Iiimiortality alone offers a solution for these 
mysteries. "After death cometh the judgment." 

The Christian bishop, Joseph, and Ivan Belsky, the regent, 
in cordial cooperation, endeavoi'ed in all things to promote 
prosperity and happiness. Again there was a coalition of the 
Tartars for the invasion of Russia. The three hordes, in 
Kezan, in the Tauride and at the mouth of the Volga, united, 
and in an army one hundred thousand strong, with numerous 
cavalry and powerful artillery, commenced their march. The 
Russian troops were hastily collected upon the banks of the 
Oka, there to take their stand and dispute the passage of the 
stream. By order of the clergy, prayers w^ere offered inces- 
santly in the churches by day and by night, that God would 
avert this terrible hivasion. The young prince, Ivan lY., was 
now ten years of age. The citizens of Moscow were moved 
to tears and to the deepest enthusiasm on hearing their young 



I V A. N IV . H IS MINORITY. 211 

prince, in the church of the Assumption, offer aloud and fer- 
vently the prayer, 

" Oh heavenly Father ! thou who didst protect our an- 
cestors against the cruel Tamerlane, take us also under thy 
holy protection — us in childhood and orphanage. Our mind 
and our body are still feeble, and yet the nation looks to us 
for deliverance.'' 

Accompanied by the metropolitan Joseph, he entered the 
council and said, 

"The enemy is approaching. Decide for me whether it 
be best that I should remain here or go to meet the foe." 

With one voice they exclaimed, " Prince, remain at Mos- 
cow." 

They then took a solemn oath to die, if necessary, for 
their prince. The citizens came forward in crowds and volun- 
teered for the defense of the walls. The faubourgs were sur- 
rounded with pallisades, and batteries of artillery were placed 
to sweep, in all directions, the approaches to the city. The 
enthusiasm was so astonishing that the Russian annalists as- 
cribe it to a supernatural cause. On the 30th of July, 1541, 
the Tartar army appeared upon the southern banks of the 
Oka, crowning all the heights which bordered the stream. 
Immediately they made an attempt to force the passage. 
But the Russians, thoroughly prepared for the assault, re-, 
pelled them with prodigious slaughter. Night put an end to 
the contest. The Russians were elated with their success, and 
waited eagerly for the morning to renew the strife. They 
even hoped to be able to cross the river and to sweep the 
camp of their foes. The fires of their bivouacs blazed all the 
night, reinforcements were continually arriving, and their 
songs of joy floated across the water, and fell heavily upon 
the hearts of the dismayed Tartars. 

At midnight the khan, and the whole host, conscious of 
their peril, commenced a precijjitate retreat, in their haste 
iibandoning many guns and much of their baggage. The 



212 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

Russians pursued the foe, but were not able to overtake them, 
so rapidly did they retrace their steps. 

The news of the expulsion of the enemy spread rapidly 
through Russia. The conduct of the grand prince every- 
where excited the most lively enthusiasm. He entered the 
church, and in an affecting prayer returned thanks to God for 
the deliverance. The people, with unanimity, exclaimed, 

" Grand prince, your angelic prayers and your happy star 
have caused us to triumph." 

Awful, however, were the woes which fell upon those peo- 
ple who were on the line of march of the barbaric Tartars. 

Ivan Belsky, the regent, had now attained the highest degree 
of good fortune, and in his own conscience, and in the gen- 
eral approbation of the people, he found ample recompense 
for his deeds of humanity, and his patriotic exertions. But 
envy, that poison of society, raised up against him enemies. 
Ivan Schouisky, who had been deposed by vote of the coun- 
cil, organized a conspiracy among the disaffected nobles, and 
on the night of the 3d of January, 1542, three hundred cava- 
liers surrounded the residences of the regent and of the met- 
ropolitan bishop, seized them and hurried them to prison, 
and in the prison finished their work by the assassination of 
Ivan Belsky. 

Ivan Schouisky, sustained by the sabers of his partisans, 
reassumed the government. A new metropolitan bishop, Ma- 
caire was appointed to take the place of Joseph, who was de- 
posed and imprisoned. The clergy, overawed, were silent. 
The reign of silence was again commenced, and all the posts 
of honor and influence were placed in the hands of the parti- 
sans of Schouisky. The government, such as it was, was now 
in the hands of a triumvirate consisting of Ivan, Andre and 
Feodor. ISTot a syllable of opposition would these men en- 
dure, and the dungeon and the assassin's poignard silenced all 
murmurs. The young prince, Ivan IV., was now thirteen 
years of age. He was endowed by nature with a mind of 



IVAN IV. — niS MINOIIITY. 213 

extraordinary sagacity and force, but his education had been 
entirely neglected, and the scenes of perfidy and violence he 
was continually witnessing were developing, a character which 
menaced Russia with many woes. 

The infamous Schiousldes sought to secure the friendship of 
the young prince by ministering, in every possible way, to his 
pleasures. They led him to the chase, encouraged whatever 
disposition he chanced to manifest, and endeavored to train 
him in a state of feebleness and ignorance which might pro- 
mote their ambitious plans. The Kremlin became the scene 
of constant intrigues. Cabal succeeded cabal. The position 
of the triumvirate became, month after month, more perilous. 
The young prince gave decisive indications of discontent. It 
began to be whispered into his ears that it was time for him 
to assume the reins of government, and he was assured that 
all Russia was waiting, eager to obey his orders. The metro- 
politan bishop, either from a sense of justice or of policy, also 
espoused the cause of the youthful sovereign. It was evident 
that another party was rising into power. 

On the 29th of December, 1534, Ivan IV. went with a 
large party of his lords to the chase. Instructed beforehand 
in the measures he was to adopt, he, quite unexpectedly to 
the triumvirate, summoned all his lords around him, and, 
assuming an imperious and threatening tone, declared that 
the triumvirate had abused his extreme youth, had trampled 
upon justice, and, as culprits, deserved to die. In his great 
clemency, however, he decided to spare the lives of two, 
executing only one as an example to the nation. The oldest 
of the three, Andre Schouisky, was immediately seized and 
handed over to the conductors of the hounds. They set the 
dogs upon him, and he was speedily torn to pieces in the 
presence of the company, and his mangled remains were scat- 
tered over the plain. 

The partisans of Schouisky, terrified by this deed, were 
ifraid to utter a murmur. The nobles generally were alarmed, 



214 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

for it was evident that though they had escaped the violence 
of the triumvirate, they had fallen into hands equally to be 
dreaded. Confiscations and other acts of rigor rapidly suc- 
ceeded, and the young prince, still too youthful to govern by 
the decision of his own mind, was quite under the control of 
the Glinskys, through whose council he had shaken off the 
triumvirate of the Schouiskies. Ivan TV. now made the tour 
of his kingdom, but with no other object than the promotion 
of his personal gratification. Most of his time was devoted to 
the excitements of the chase in the savas^e forests which 
8V>read over a large portion of his realms. He was always 
surrounded by a brilliant staff of nobles, and the sufferings 
of the people were all concealed from his view. The enormous 
expenses of his court were exacted from the people he visited, 
and his steps were followed by lamentations. 

In the year 1546, Ivan attained the eighteenth year of his 
age, and made great preparations for his coronation. The 
imposing rites were to be performed at Moscow. On the 
16th of January, the grand prince entered one of the saloons 
of his palaces while the nobles, the princes, the ofiicers of the 
court, all richly dressed, were assembled in the ante-chamber. 
The confessor of the grand prince, having received from Ivan 
IV. a crucifix, placed it upon a plate of gold with the crown 
and other regalia, and conveyed them to the church of the 
Assumption accompanied by the grand equerry, Glinsky, and 
other important personages of the court. Soon after, the 
grand prince also repaired to the church. He was preceded 
by an ecclesiastic holding in his hand a crucifix, and sprink- 
ling to the right and to the left holy water upon the crowd. 

Ivan IV., surrounded by all the splendors of his court, 
entered the church, Avhere he was encircled by the ecclesias- 
tics, and received the benediction of the metropolitan bishop. 
A hymn was then sang by the accumulated choirs, which as- 
tounded the audience ; after which mass was celebrated. In 
the midst of the cathedral, a platform was erected, which was 



IVAN IV. — HIS MINORITY 215 

ascended by twelve steps. Upon this platform there were 
two thrones of equal splendor, covered with cloth of gold, 
one for the monarch, the other for the metropolitan bishop. 
In front of the stage there was a desk, richly decorated, upon 
which were placed the crown regalia. The monarch and the 
bishop took their seats. The bishop, rising, pronounced a 
benediction upon the monarch, placed the crown upon his 
head, the scepter in his hand, and then, with a loud voice, 
prayed that God would endow this new David with the in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit, establish his throne in righteous- 
ness, and render him terrible to evil doers and a benefactor 
to those who should do well. The ceremonies were closed by 
an anthem by the choir. The young emperor then returned, 
with his court, to the Kremlin, through streets carpeted with 
velvet and damask. As they walked along, the emperor's 
brother, Youri, scattered among the crowd handsfuU of gold 
coin, which he took from a vase carried at his side by Michel 
Glinsky. The moment Ivan IV. left the church, the people, 
till then motionless and silent, precipitated themselves upon 
the platform, and all the rich cloths which had decorated it 
were torn to shreds, each individual eager to possess a sou- 
venii- of the memorable day. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EEiaN OF IVAN IV. 
From 1546 to 1552. 

The Titlb of Tzar. — ^Marriage op Ivan IY. — Yirthes of His Bride. — Depraved 
Charactf.e of the Young Emperor. — Terrible Conflagrations. — Insurrec- 
tions. — The Eebuke. — Wonderful Change in the Character of Ivan IV. — 
Confkssions of Sin and Measures of Reform. — Sylvestre and Alexis Adacuef. 
— The Code of Laws. — Reforms in the Church. — Encouragement to Men of 
Science and Letters. — The Embassage of Schlit. — War with Kezan. — Disas- 
ters AND Disgrace. — Immense Preparation foe the Chastisement of the Horde. 
— The March. — Repulse of the Tauredians. — Siege of Kezan. — Incidents of 
THE Siege. 

rPHOUGH the monarchs of Russia, in all their relations with 
J- foreign powers, took the title of Tzar or Emperor, they 
also retained that of Grand Prince which was consecrated by 
ancient usage. And now the envoys of Ivan IY. were traver- 
sing Russia in all directions to find, among the maidens of 
noble blood, one whose beauty would render her worthy of 
the sovereign. The choice at last fell upon Anastasia, the 
daughter of a lady of illustrious rank, who was a widow. 
Language is exhausted, by the Russian annalists, in describ- 
ing the perfections of her person, mind and heart. All con- 
ceivable social and moral excellences were in her united with 
the most brilliant intellectual gifts and the most exquisite 
loveliness. 

The marriage was performed by the bishop in the church 
of Notre Dame. " You are now," said the metropolitan, in 
conclusion, " united for ever, by virtue of the mysteries of the 
gospel. Prostrate yourselves, then, before the Most High, 
and secure his favor by the practice of every virtue. .But 
those virtues which should especially distinguish you, are the 



THE KEIGN OF IVAN IV. 217 

love of truth and of benevolence. Prince, love and honor 
your spouse. Princess, truly Christian, be submissive to 
your husband ; for as the Redeemer is the head of the 
church, so is man the head of the woman." 

For many days Moscow was surrendered to festivity and 
rejoicings. The emperor devoted his attention to the rich, 
the empress to the poor. Anastasia, since the death of her 
father, had lived remote from the capital, in the most pro- 
found rural seclusion. Suddenly, and as by magic, she found 
herself transported to the scenes of the highest earthly grand- 
eur, but still she maintained the same beautiful simplicity of 
character which she had developed in the saddened home of 
her widowed mother. Ivan IV. was a man of ungovernable 
passions, and accustomed only to idleness, he devoted himself 
to the most gross and ignoble pleasures. Mercilessly he con- 
fiscated the estates of those who displeased him, and with 
caprice equal to his mercilessness, he conferred their posses- 
sions upon his favorites. He seemed to regard this arbitrary 
conduct as indicative of his independence and grandeur. 

The situation of Russia w^as perhaps never more deplora- 
ble than at the commencement of the reign of Ivan TV, The 
Glinskys were in high favor, and easily persuaded the young 
emperor to gratify all their desires. Laden with honors and 
riches, they turned a deaf ear to all the murmurs which des- 
potism, the most atrocious, extorted from every portion of 
the empire. The inhabitants of Pskof, oppressed beyond en- 
durance by an infamous governor, sent seventy of their most 
influential citizens to Moscow to present their grievances to 
the emperor. Ivan IV. raved like a madman at what he 
called the insolence of his subjects, in complaining of their 
governor. Almost choking with rage, he ordered the seventy 
deputies to be put to death by the most cruel tortures. 

Anastasia wept in anguish over these scenes, and her 
prayers were incessantly ascending, that God would change 
the heart of her husband. Her prayers were heard and an- 

10 



218 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

swered. The same j^ower which changed Saul of Tarsus into 
Paul the Apostle, seemed to renew the soul of Ivan lY. 
History is full of these marvelous transformations — a mental 
phenomenon only to be explained by the scriptural doctrine 
of regeneration. In Ivan's case, as in that of thousands of 
others, afihetions were instruments made available by the 
Holy Spirit for the heart's renewal. 

Moscow was at this time a capital of vast extent and of 
great magnificence. As timber was abundant and easily 
worked, most of the buildings, even the churches and the 
palaces, were constructed of wood. Though almost every 
house was surrounded by a garden, these enclosures were ne- 
cessarily not extensive, and the city was peculiarly exposed to 
the perils of conflagration. 

On the 12th of April, 1547, the cry of fire alarmed the in- 
habitants, and soon the flames were spreading with fury which 
baffled all human power. The store-houses of commerce, the 
magazines of the crown, the convent of Epiphany and a large 
number of dwellings, extending from the gate of Illinsky, to 
the Kremlin and the Moskwa, were consumed. The river 
alone arrested the destruction. A powder magazine took fire, 
and with a terrible explosion its towers were thrown into the 
air, takins: with them a large section of the walls. The ruins 
fell like an avalanche into the river, completely filling up its 
channel, adding the destruction of a deluge to that of the 
fire. 

A week had hardly passed ere the cry of fire again was 
raised, and, in a few hours, the whole section of the city on 
tlie other side of the Yaouza was in ashes. This region was 
mostly occupied by mechanics and manufacturers, and im- 
mense suffering ensued. Six weeks elapsed, and the inhabi- 
tants were just beginning to recover from their consternation, 
and were sweeping away the ashes to rebuild, when on the 
20th of June, the wind at the time blowing a gale, the fearful 
cry of fire again rang through the streets. The palaces of 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 219 

tlie nobles were now in flames. The palace of the Kremlin 
itself, the gorgeous streets which surrounded it, and the 
whole of the grand faubourg in a few moments were glowing 
like a furnace. God had come with flaming fire as his minis- 
ter of vengeance, and resistance was unavailing. The whole 
city was now in ashes, and presented the aspect of an im- 
mense funeral pile, over which was spread a pall of thick and 
blaek smoke. The wooden edifices disappeared entirely. 
Those of stone and brick presented a still more gloomy as- 
pect, with only portions of their walls standing, crumbling and 
blackened. The howling of the tempest, the roar of the 
flames, the crash of falling buildings, and the shrieks of the 
inhabitants, were all frequently overpowered by the ex- 
plosions of the powder magazines in the arsenals of the 
Kremlin. 

To many of the people it seemed that the day of judg- 
ment had actually arrived, that the trump of the archangel 
was sounding, and that the final conflagration had arrived. 
The palace of the emperor, his treasures, his precious things, 
his arms, his venerated images and the archives of the king- 
dom, all were devoured. The destruction of the city was 
almost as entire and as signal a proof of the divine displeas- 
ure as that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even the metropolitan 
bishop, who was in the church of the Assumption, plead- 
ing for divine interposition, was with great difficulty rescued. 
Smothered, and in a state almost of insensibility, he was con- 
veyed through billows of flame and smoke. Seventeen hun- 
dred adults, besides uncounted children, perished in the fire. 

For many days the wretched inhabitants were seen wan- 
dering about, in the fields and among the ruins, searching for 
their children, their friends or any articles of furniture which 
might, by chance, have escaped the flames. Many became 
maniacs, and their cries arose in all directions like the howL 
ings of wild beasts. The emperor and the nobles, to avoid 
the spectacle of so much misery, retired to the village of 



220 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

Vorobeif, a few miles from Moscow. The whole population 
of Moscow, being in a state of despair, and reckless of conse- 
quences, were ripe for any conspiracy against an emperor and 
his favorites, whose iniquities, in their judgment, had brought 
down upon them the indignation of Heaven. 

Several of the higher clergy, in cooperation with some of 
the princes and nobles, resolved to arouse the energies of the 
populace to effect a change in the government. The Glin- 
skys were the advisers and instigators of the king. Against 
them the fury of the populace was easily directed. These 
doomed minions of despotism were pursued with fury ener- 
gized by despair. Ivan lY. was quite unable to protect them. 
The Glinskys, with their numerous partisans, had returned to 
Moscow to make arrangements for the rebuilding of the 
Kremlin when the mob fell upon them, and they were nearly 
all slain. In the eye of the populace, there was something so 
sacred in the person of their prince that no one thought of 
offering him any harm. 

Ivan TV., astounded by this outbreak, was trembling in 
bis palace at Yorobeif, and his truly pious wife, Anastasia, 
was, with tears, pleading with Heaven, when one of the 
clergy, an extraordinary man named Sylvestre, endowed with 
the boldness of an ancient prophet, entered the presence of 
the emperor. He was venerable in years, and his gray locks 
fell in clusters upon his shoulders. The boy king was over- 
awed by his appearance. One word from that capricious 
king would cause the head of Sylvestre to fall from the block. 
But the intrepid Christian, with the solemnity of an embassa- 
dor from God, with pointed finger and eye sparkling witii 
indignation, thus addressed him : 

" God's avenging hand is suspended over the head of a 
God-forgetting, man-oppressing tzar. Fire from heaven has 
consumed Moscow. The anger of the Most High has called 
up the people in revolt, and is spreading over the kingdom 
anarchy, fury and blood." 



THE KEIGN OF IVAN IV. 22i 

Then taking from his bosom a copy of the New Testa- 
ment, he read to the king those divinely-inspired precepts 
which are alike applicable to monarchs and peasants, and, in 
tones subdued by sadness, urged the king to follow these sacred 
lessons. The warning was heeded, and Ivan became " a new 
creature." Whatever explanations philosophy may attempt 
of the sudden and marvelous change of the character of Ivan 
IV., the fact remains one of the marvels of history. He a2> 
pears to have been immediately overwhelmed with a sense 
of his guilt ; with tears he extended his hand to the cour- 
ageous monitor, asked imploringly what he could do to avert 
the wrath and secure the favor of Heaven, and placed himself 
at once under the guidance of his new-found friend. 

Sylvestre, a humble, world-renouncing Christian, sought 
nothing for himself, and would accept neither riches nor hon- 
ors, but he remained near the throne to strengthen the young 
monarch in his good resolutions. There was a young man, 
Alexis Adachef, connected with the court who possessed a 
character of extraordinary nobleness and loveliness. He was 
of remarkable personal beauty, and his soul was pure and 
sensitive. Entirely devoted to the good of others, without 
the least apparent mixtui-e of sordid motives, he engaged in 
the service of the tzar, and became to him a friend of price 
less value. Alexis, mingling freely with the people, was 
acquainted with all their wants and griefs, and he cooperating 
with Sylvestre, inspired the emperor with a heart to conceive 
and energy to execute all good things. 

From this conjunction is to be dated the commencement 
of the glory of the reign of Ivan IV. The first endeavor of 
the reformed monarch was to quell the tumult among the 
people. Three days after the assassination of the Glinskys, 
a mob from Moscow rushed out to the village of Vorobeif, 
surrounded the palace and demanded one of the aunts of the 
emperor and another of the nobles who had become obnox- 
ious to them. The king immediately opened a fire upon the 



222 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

mob and dispersed them. This decisive act restored order. 
Ivan IV. immediately devoted all his energies to preparing 
dwellings for the houseless poor and in relieving their neces- 
sities. His whole soul seemed aroused to promote the happi- 
ness of his subjects, botb temporal and spiritual, and all selfish 
considerations were apparently obliterated from his mind. In 
order to consolidate, by the aids of religion, the happy change 
effected in the government and in his own heart, the young 
sovereign shut himself up for several days in solitude, and, in 
the exercises of self-examination, fasting and prayer, made 
the entire consecration of himself to his Maker. He then 
assembled the bishops in one of the churches, and, in their 
presence, with touching words and tearful eyes, made con- 
fession of his faults, implored divine forgiveness, and then, 
with the calmness of a soul relieved of the burden of sin, 
received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

With true nobility of soul, he wished his penitence to be 
as conspicuous as his sins had been. He resolved to humble 
himself before his Maker in the presence of all Russia, that 
his subjects universally might understand the new principles 
which animated his heart, and the new desires which would 
enlist his energies. Every city in the empire received orders 
to send deputies to Moscow, chosen from all the ranks of so- 
ciety, to attend to matters of the utmost importance to the 
country. The Sabbath morning after their arrival, they were 
all assembled, an immense multitude, in one of the public 
squares of the city. The czar, accompanied by the clergy 
and the nobles, left the palace of the Kremlin to meet the 
deputies. The solemnity of the Sabbath hallowed the scene, 
and the people received their sovereign in profound silence. 

The metropolitan bishop first offered a prayer. Ivan IV. 
then, standing on a platform, addressed the bishop in the fol- 
lowing terms : 

" Holy father ! Your zeal for religion, your love for our 
country are well known to me ; aid me in my good intentions. 



THE EEIGN OF IVAN lY. 223 

I lost, while an infant, ray parents, and the nobles, who sought 
only their own aggrandizement, neglected entirely my educa- 
tion, and have usurped, in ray name, wealth and power. They 
have enriched themselves by injustice, and have crushed the 
poor without any one daring to check their ambition. I was, 
as it were, both deaf and dumb in my deplorable ignorance, 
for I heard not the lamentations of the poor, and my words 
solaced them not in their sorrows. Who can tell the tears 
which have been shed, the blood which has flowed ? For all 
these things the judgment of God is to be feared." 

Bowing then on all sides to the people, the monarch con- 
tinuing, thus addressed them: 

" O, you my people, whom the All-powerful has entrusted 
to my care, I invoke this day, in my behalf, both your re- 
ligion and the love you have for me. It is impossible to re- 
pair past faults, but I will hereafter be your protector from 
oppression and all wrong. Forget those griefs which shall 
never be renewed. Lay aside every subject of discord, and 
let Christian love fraternize your hearts. From this day I 
will be your judge and your defender." 

Religious ceremonies, simple yet imposing, closed this 
scene. Alexis Adachef was appointed minister of justice, 
receiving special instructions to watch the empire w4th a 
vigilant eye, that the poor especially should be subject to no 
oppression. From that moraent all the actions of the sover- 
eign were guided by the counsels of Sylvestre and Adachef. 
Ivan IV. asserabled around him a council of his wisest and 
best men, and ever presided in person over their meetings. 
With great energy he entered upon the work of establishing 
a code of laws, which should be based upon the love of jus- 
tice and good order. In the year 1550 this important code 
was promulgated, which forms alraost the basis of Russian 
civilization. 

On the 23d of February, 1551, a large convention of the 
clergy, of the nobles and of the principal citizens of the 



224 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

empire, was assembled at the Kremlin, and the emperor 
presented to them, for then* own consideration and approval, 
the code of laws which had been framed. The mind of Ivan 
TV. expanded rapidly under these noble toils, and in a speech 
of great eloquence he urged them to examine these laws, to 
pomt out any defects and to cooperate with him in every 
endeavor for the prosperity of Russia. 

After having thus settled the affairs of the State, the 
monarch turned his attention to those of the Church, urging 
the clergy to devote themselves to the work of ecclesiastical 
reform ; to add simplicity to the ceremonies of religion, to 
prepare books of piety for the people, to train up a thorough- 
ly instructed clergy for the pulpits, to establish rules for the 
decorous observance of divine worship, to abolish useless 
monasteries, to purify the convents of all immorality, and to 
insist that ecclesiastics, of every grade, should be patterns of 
piety for their flocks. The clergy eagei'ly engaged in this 
plan of reform, and vied with their Christian monarch in 
their eflbrts for the public weal. 

Among the number of projects truly worthy of the grand 
prince, we must not neglect particular mention of his attempt 
to enrich Russia by encouraging the emigration, from other 
lands, of men distinguished in the arts and sciences. A dis- 
tinguished German, named Schlit, being in Moscow in 1547, 
informed the tzar of the rapid progress Germany was making 
in civilization and enlightenment. Ivan IV. listened attentive- 
ly, and after many interviews and protracted questionings, 
proposed that he should return to Germany as an envoy from 
Russia, and invite, in his name, to Moscow, artists, physicians, 
apothecaries, printers, mechanics, and also literary men, skilled 
in the languages, dead or living, and learned theologians. 

Schlit accepted the mission and hastened to Augsburg, 
■where the Emperor Charles V. was then presiding over a 
diet. Schlit presented to him a letter from Ivan IV. relative 
to this business. Charles was a httle doubtful as to the ex- 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IT. 225 

pediency of allowing illustrious men from his empire to emi- 
grate and thus add to the consideration and power of a rival 
kingdom. Nevertheless, after a long deliberation with the 
assembled States, he consented to gratify the tzar, on con- 
sideration that he would engage, by oath, not to allow any of 
the artists or the literati to pass from Russia into Turkey, and 
that he would not employ their talents in any manner hurtful 
to the German empire. Turkey was at that time assuming an 
attitude so formidable, that it was deemed expedient to in- 
crease the power of Russia, as that kingdom might thus more 
effectually aid as a barrier against the Turks ; while, at the 
same time, it was deemed a matter of the utmost moment 
that Turkey should receive no aid whatever from Christian 
civilization. 

Charles Y. accordingly gave Schlit a written commission 
to raise his corps of emigrants. He soon assembled one hun- 
dred and twenty illustrious men at Lubeck, where they were 
to embark for Russia. But, in the mean tiuie, tlie opposition 
had gained ground, and even Charles V. himself had become 
apprehensive that Russia, thus enlightened, might attain to 
formidable power. He accordingly had Schlit arrested. The 
corps of emigrants, thus deprived of their leader, and conse- 
quently disheartened, soon dispersed. Several months passed 
away before Ivan lY. received intelligence of the sad fate of 
his envoy. Though the plan thus failed, nevertheless, quite a 
number of these German artists, notwithstanding the prohi- 
bition of the emperor, effected their escape from Germany, 
secretly entered Russia, and engaged in the service of the 
tzar, were they were very efficient in contributing to Russian 
civilization. 

The barbarian horde at Kezan still continued to annoy 

Russia with very many incursions. Some were mere petty 

forays, others were extended invasions, but all were alike 

merciless and bloody. In February, 1550, Ivan lY., then but 

twenty two vears o''age, placed himself at the head of a largp 

10* 



226 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

array to descend the Volga and punish the horde. The mon- 
arch was young and totally inexperienced in war. A series 
of terrible disasters from storms and floods thinned his ranks, 
and the monarch in great dejection returned to Moscow to 
replenish his forces. Again, early in December, he hastened 
to meet his army which had been rendezvoused at Xigni 
Kovcrorod, on the Yoloa, about three hundred miles west of 
Moscow\ In the early spring they descended the river, and 
in great force encamped before the walls of Kezan. The 
walls were of wood. The Russians were sixty thousand 
strono", and were aided with several batteries of artillery. 
The assault was immediately commenced, and for one whole 
day the battle raged with equal valor on the part of the as- 
sailants and the defendants. The next day a storm arose, 
the rain foiling abundantly and freezing as it touched the 
ground. The encampment was flooded, and the assailant-*, 
unable to make any progress, were again compelled to beat 
a retreat. These reverses mortified the young tzar, though 
he succeeded in efi'ecting a treaty with the barbarians, which 
in some degree covered his disgrace. 

But the horde, entirely disorganized, paid no regard to 
treaties and continued their depredations. Agam, in the year 
1552, the tzar prepared another expedition to check their 
ravages. He announced to the council, in a very solemn ses- 
sion, that the time had arrived w^hen it was necessary, at all 
hazards, to check the pride of the horde. 

" God is my witness," said he, " that I do not seek vain 
glory, but I wish to secure the repose of my people. How 
shall I be able in the day of judgment to say to the Most High, 
* Behold me and the subjects thou hast entrusted to my care,' 
if I do not shelter them from the eternal enemies of Russia, 
from these barbarians from whom one can have neither peace 

nor truce ?" 

The lords endeavored to persuade the emperor to remain 
at Moscow, and to entrust the expedition to his experienced 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 227 

generals, but he declared that he would not expose his array- 
to perils and fjatigues which he was not also ready and willing 
to share. Though many were in fixvor of a winter's campaign, 
as Kezan was surrounded with streams and lakes which the 
ice would then bridge, yet Ivan decided upon the summer as 
more favorable for the transportation of his army down the 
rivers. By the latter part of May the waters of the Volga 
and the Oka were covered with bateaux laden with artillery 
and with military stores, and the banks of those streams were 
crowded with troops upon the march. Nigni Novgorod, 
where the Oka empties into the Volga, was as usual the ap- 
pointed place of rendezvous. The 16th of June Ivan took 
leave of the Empress Anastasia. Her emotion at parting was 
so great that she fell fainting into the arms of her husband. 

From his palace Ivan proceeded to the church of the 
Assumption, where the blessing of Heaven was implored, and 
then issuing orders that the bishops, all over the empire, 
should offer prayers daily for the success of the expedition, 
lie mounted his horse, and accompanied by the cavalry of his 
guard, took the route to Kolumna, a city on the Oka, about a 
hundred miles south of Moscow. 

It will be remembered that the Tartar horde existed in 
several vast encampments. One of these encampments occu- 
pied Tauride, as the region north of the Crimea, and including 
that peninsula, was then called. These barbarians, thinking 
that the Russian army was now five hundred miles west of 
Moscow at Kezan, and that the empire was thus defenseless, 
with a vast army of invasion were on the eager march for 
Moscow. Ivan at Kolumna heard joyfully of their approach, 
for he was prepared to meet them and to chastise them with 
merited severity. On the 22d of July, the horde, unconscious 
of their danger, surrounded the walls of Toola, a city about a 
hundred miles south of Kolumna. Ivan himself, heading a 
division of the army, fell fiercely upon them, and the Tartars 
were totally routed, losing artillery, camels, banners and a 



228 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

large number of prisoners. They were pursued a long dis- 
tance as in wild rout they fled back to their own country. 

This brilliant success greatly elated the army. Ivan lY., 
sending his trophies to Moscow, as an encouragement to the 
capital, again put his army in motion towards Kezan. The 
relation which existed between the sovereign and his pastor, 
the faithful meti'opolitan bishop, may be inferred from the 
following communications which passed between them, equally 
worthy of them both. 

" May the soul of your majesty," wrote the metropolitan, 
" remain pure and chaste. Be humble in prosperity and cour- 
ageous in adversity. The piety of a sovereign saves and 
blesses his empire." The tzar replied, 

" Worthy pastor of the church, we thank you for your 
Christian instructions. We will engrave them on our heart. 
Continue to us your wise counsels, and aid us also with your 
prayers. We advance against the enemy. May the Lord 
soon enable us to secure peace and repose to the Christians." 

On the 13th of August, with his assembled army, he 
reached Yiask on the Yolga, about fifty miles above Kezan. 
Here he encamped to concentrate and rest his troops after so 
long a march. Barges freighted with provisions, merchandise 
and munitions of war, were incessantly arriving from the vast 
regions watered by the Yolga and the Oka. As by magic an 
immense city spread out over the green plain. Tents glis- 
tened in the sun, banners waved, and horsemen and footmen, 
in all the gorgeous panoply of war, extended as far as the eye 
could reach. 

While resting here, Ivan lY. sent an embassy to Kezan, 
saying that the tzar sought their repentance and amendment, 
not their destruction ; that if they would deliver up to pun- 
ishment the authors of sedition, and would give satisfactory 
pledges of future friendliness, they might live in peace under 
the paternal government of the tzar. To this message a con- 
temptuous and defiant response was returned by the Tartar 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 229 

khan. The answer was closed with these words: "We are 
anxiously awaiting your arrival, and are all ready to com- 
mence our festivities." 

That very day, the Russian army, amounting to one 
hundred and fifty thousand men, arrived within sight of 
Kezan. A prairie four miles in width, carpeted with flowers, 
extended from the Volga to the range of mountains at the 
base of which the city stood. The Tartars, abounding in 
wealth, by the aid of engineers and architects from all lands, 
had surrounded the city with massive walls defended with 
towers, ramparts and bastions in tlie most formidable strength 
of military art as then known. Within the walls rose the 
minarets of innumerable mosques and the turrets of palaces 
embellished with all the gorgeousness of oriental wealth and 
taste. The horde, relying upon the strength of their fortifi- 
cation, remained behind their walls, where they prepared for 
a defense which they doubted not would be successful. Two 
days were employed in disembarking the artillery and the 
munitions of war. 

While thus engaged, a deserter escaped from the city and 
announced to the tzar that the fortress was abundantly sup- 
plied with artillery, provisions and all means of defense ; that 
the garrison consisted of thirty-two thousand seven hundred 
veteran soldiers ; that a numerous corps of cavalry had been 
detached to scour the surrounding country and raise an army 
of cavalry and infantry to assail the besiegers in flank and 
rear, while the garrisons should be prepared to sally from 
their entrenchments. 

On the 23d of August, at the dawn of day, the army, 
advancing from the river, approached the city. The moment 
the sun appeared in the horizon, at the sound of in-numerable 
trumpets, the whole army arrested their steps and the sacred 
standard was unfurled, presenting the eftigy of Jesus Christ, 
our Saviour, surmounted by a golden cross. Ivan IV. and 
his staff alighted from their horses, and, beneath the shadow 



230 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

of the banner, with prayers and other exercises of devo- 
tion, received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The 
monarch then rode along the ranks, and, in an impassioned 
harangue, roused the soldiers to the noblest enthusiasm. 
Exalting the glory of those who might fall in the defense 
of religion, he assured them in the name of Russia that their 
wives and their children should never be forgotten, but that 
they should be the objects of his special care and should ever 
enjoy protection and abundance. In conclusion, he assured 
them that he was determined to sacrifice his own life, if neces- 
sary, to secure the triumph of the cross. These words v/ere 
received with shouts of acclaim. The chaplain of Ivan, ele- 
vated in the view of the whole army, pronomiced a solemn 
benediction upon the sovereign and upon all the troops, and 
then bowing to the sacred standard, exclaimed, 

" O Lord, it is in thy name we now march against the 
infidels." 

With waving banners and pealing trumpets, the army was 
now conducted before the walls of the city. Every thing 
there seemed abandoned and in profound silence and solitude. 
Not the slightest movement could be perceived. Not an 
individual appeared upon the walls. Many of the Russians 
began to rejoice, imagining that the tzar of Kezan, struck 
with terror, had fled with all his army into the forest. But 
the generals, more experienced, suspected a snare, and re- 
garded the aspect of affairs as a motive for redoubled pru- 
dence. With great caution they made their dispositions for 
commencing the siege. As a division of seven thousand 
troops were crossing a bridge which they had thrown over a 
ditch near the walls, suddenly a violent uproar succeeded the 
profound silence which had reigned in the city. The air was 
filled with cries of rage. The massive gates rolled open upon 
their hinges, and fifteen thousand mounted Tartars, armed to 
the teeth, rushed upon the little band with a shock utterly 
resistless, and, in a few moments, the Russians were cut to 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 231 

pieces jn the presence of the whole army. The victorious 
Tartars, having achieved this signal exploit, swept back again 
into the city and the gates were closed. This event taught 
the Russians prudence. 

Anticipating a long siege, a city of tents was reared, w^ith 
its streets and squares, beyond the reach of the guns from 
the walls. Three churches of canvas were constructed, where 
worship was daily held. Day after day, the siege was con- 
ducted with the usual events witnessed around a beleaguered 
fortress. There w^ere the thunderings of artillery, the ex- 
plosion of mines, fierce and bloody sorties, the shrieks of the 
combatants, and the city ever burning by flames enkindled 
by red hot shot thrown over the w^alls. The Russian bat- 
teries grew every day more and more formidable, and the 
ramparts crumbled beneath their blows. The Russian army 
w^as so numerous that the soldiers relieved themselves at the 
batteries, and the bombardment was continued day and night. 
At length a Tartar army was seen descending the distant 
mountains and hastening to the relief of the garrison. Ivan 
dispatched one half his army to meet them. The Tartars, 
after a sanguinary conflict, were cut to pieces. As the divis- 
ion returned covered with dust and blood, and exulting in 
their great achievement, Ivan displayed the prisoners, the 
banners, and the spoil he had taken, before the walls of the 
city. A herald was then sent, to address these words to the 
besieged : 

" Ivan promises you life, liberty and pardon for the past, 
if you will submit yourselves to him." 

The response returned was, 

" We had rather die by our own pure hands, than perish 
by those of miserable Christians." 

This answer was followed by a storm of all the missiles of 
war. 

The monarch, wishing as far as possible to save the city 
from destruction, and to avoid the efi"usion of blood, directed 



232 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

a German engineer to sink a mine under an important por- 
tion of the walls. The miners proceeded until they could 
hear the footsteps of the Kezanians over their heads. Eleven 
tons of powder were placed in the vault. On the 5th of Sep- 
tember, the match was applied. The explosion was awful. 
Large portions of the wall, towers, buildings, rocks, the mu- 
tilated bodies of men, were thrown hundreds of feet into the 
air and fell upon the city, crushing the dwellings and the in- 
habitants. The besieged were seized with mortal terror, not 
knowing to what to attribute so dire a calamity. The Rus- 
sians, who were prepared for the explosion, waving their 
swords, with loud outcries rushed in at the breach. But the 
Kezanians, soon recovering from their consternation, with 
their breasts and their artillery presented a new rampart, and 
beat back the foe. Thus, day after day, the horrible carnage 
continued. Within the city and without the city, death held 
high carnival. There were famine and pestilence and misery 
in all imaginable forms within the walls. In the camp of the 
besiegers, there were mutilation, and death's agonies and de- 
spair. Army after army of Tartars came to the help of the 
besieged, but they were mown down mercilessly by Russian 
sabers, and trampled beneath Russian hoofs. 

Ivan, morning and evening, with his generals, entered the 
church to implore the blessing of God upon his enterprise. 
In no other way could he rescue Russia from the invasion of 
these barbarians, than by thus appealing to the energies of 
the sword. In the contemplation of such a tragedy, the 
mind struggles in bewilderment, and can only say, " Be stilJ 
and know that I am God." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE EEIGN OF ITAN I Y.— C ONTINUED. 

Teom 1552 TO 155t. 

Siege of Kezan.t-Aetifioes of "War.— The Explosion of Mines. — The Final As- 
sault. — Complete Subjugation of Kezan. — Gratitude and Liberality of the 

Tzar. — Eeturn to Moscow Jot of the Inhabitants. — Birth of an Heir to the 

Crown. — Insurrection in Kezan. — The Insurrection Quelled. — Conquest of 
Astruchan. — The English Expedition in Search of a North-East Passage to 
India. — The Establishment at Archangel. — Commercial Kelations Between 
France and Eussia. — Russian Embassy to England. — Extension of Commerce. 

nr^HE Russians had now been a month before the walls of 
-•- Kezan. Ten thousand of the defenders had already 
been slain. The autumnal sun was rapidly declining, and the 
storms of winter were approaching. Secretly they now con- 
structed, a mile and a half from the camp, an immense tower 
upon wheels, and rising higher than the walls of the city. 
Upon the platform of this tower they placed sixteen cannon, 
of the largest caliber, which were worked by the most skillful 
gunners. In the night this terrible machine was rolled up to 
the walls, and with the first dawn of the morning opened its 
fire upon the dwellings and the streets. The carnage was at 
first horrible, but the besieged at length took refuge in sub- 
terranean walks and covered ways, where they indomitably 
continued the conflict. The artillery, placed upon the walls 
of Kezan, were speedily dismounted by the batteries on the 
tower. 

A new series of mines beneath the walls were now con- 
structed by the Russian engineers, which were to operate vith 
destructive power, hitherto unrecorded in the annals of war. 
On the 1st of October the tzar announced to the army tiiat 



234 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the mines were ready to be fired, and wished them to pre- 
pare for the general assault. While one half of the troops 
continued the incessant bombardment, the other half were 
assembled in the churches to purify themselves for the conflict 
by confession, penitence, prayer and the partaking of the sa- 
crament of the Lord's Supper. The divisions then exchanged 
that the whole army might prostrate itself before God. Ivan 
IV. himself retired with his confessor and passed several hours 
in earnest devotion. The night preceding the assault there was 
no repose in either camp. The Kezanians, who were anxiously 
awaiting events, had perceived an extraordinary movement 
among the Russians, as each battalion was guided to the spot 
whence it was to rush over the ruins immediately after the 
explosion. Forty-eight tons (tonneaux) of powder had been 
placed in the mines. 

The morning of the 2d of October dawned serene and 
cloudless. The earliest lio^ht revealed the Russians and the 
Kezanians each at thojr posts. The moment the sun appeared 
above the horizon the explosion took place. First the earth 
trembled and rose and fell for many miles as if shaken by an 
earthquake. A smothered roar, swelling into pealing thunder 
ensued, which appalled every mind. Immense volumes of 
smoke, thick and suffocating, instantaneously rolled over the 
city and the beleagueing camp, converting day into night. A 
horrible melange of timbers, rocks, guns and mutilated bodies 
of men, women and children were hurled into the air through 
this storm cloud of war, and fell in hideous ruin alike upon 
the besiegers and the besieged. At the moment when the 
explosion took place, one of the bishops in the church was 
reading the words of our Saviour foretelling the peaceful 
reign of fraternity and of heavenly love, "Henceforth there 
shall be but one flock and one shepherd." Strange contrast 
between the spirit of heaven and the woes of a fallen world! 

For a moment even the Russians, though all prepared for 
the explosion, were paralyzed by its direful effects. But in- 



THE REIGX OF IVAN IV. 235 

stantly recovering, tliey raised the simultaneous shout, " God 
is with us," and rushing over tlie debris of ruin and blood, 
penetrated the city. The Tartars met them with the fury of 
despair, appealing, in their turn, to Allah and Mohammed. Soon 
the Russian banner floated over tottering towers and blackened 
walls, though for many hours the battle raged with fierceness, 
which human energies can not exceed. 

Prince Vorotinsky, early in the afternoon, soiled with 
blood and blackened with smoke, rode from the ruins of the 
city into the presence of Ivan, and bowing, said, 

" Sire, rejoice ; your bravery and your good fortune have 
secured the victor3^ Kezan is ours. The khan is in your 
power, the people are slain or taken captive. Unspeakablo 
riches have fallen into our hands." 

" Let God be glorified," cried Ivan, raising his eyes and 
his hands to heaven. Then taking the sacred standard in his 
own hands, he entered the city, planted the banner in one of 
the principal squares, ordered a Te Deimi there to be chanted, 
and then directed that upon that spot the foundation should 
be laid of the first Christian temple. All the booty Ivan sur- 
rendered to the army, saying, 

" The only riches I desire, are the repose and the honor of 
Russia." 

Then assembling his troops around him, he thus addressed 
them : 

" Valiant lords, generals, ofiicers, all of you w^ho in this 
solemn day have sufiTered for the glory of God, for religion, 
your country and your emperor, you have acquired immortal 
glory. Never before did a people develop such bravery ; 
never before was so signal a victory gained. How can I 
suitably reward your glorious actions ? 

" And you who repose on the field of honor, noble chil- 
dren of Russia, you are already in the celestial realms, in the 
midst of Christian martyrs and all resplendent with glory. 
This is the recompense with which God has i-ewarded you. 



236 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

But as for us, it is our duty to transmit your names to future 
ages, and the sacred list in which they shall be enrollel shall 
be placed in the temple of the Lord, that they may ever live 
in the memory of men. 

" You, who bathed in your blood, still live to experience 
the effects of my love and my gratitude ; all of you brave 
warriors now before me, listen attentively to my words, and 
repose perfect confidence in the promises I make to you this 
day, that I will cherish you and protect you to the end of my 
life." 

These were not idle words. Ivan personally visited the 
wounded, cheered them with his sympathy, and ever after 
watched over them with parental care. His brother-in-law, 
Daniel, was immediately sent an envoy to the empress and to 
the metropolitan bishop, to inform them of the victory. The 
day was closed by a festival, in a gorgeous tent, where all the 
principal officers and lords were invited to dine with the tzar. 
A proclamation was addressed to all the tribes and nations of 
the conquered region. 

*' Come," said the Russian tzar, " without fear to me. 
The past is forgotten ; for perfidy has received its reward. I 
shall require of you only the tribute which you have hereto- 
fore paid to the tzars of Kezan." 

On the 3d of October the dead were buried and the 
whole city was cleansed. The next day, Ivan, accompanied 
by his clergy, his council and the chiefs of his army, made his 
triumphal entrance, and laid, on the designated spot, the 
corner-stone of the cathedral church of the Visitation. He 
also made the tour of the city, bearing the sacred banner, and 
consecrating Kezan to the true God. The clergy sprinkled 
holy water upon the streets and upon the walls of the houses, 
imploring the benediction of Heaven upon this new rampart 
of Christianity. They prayed that the inhabitants might be 
preserved from all maladies, that they might be strengthened 
to repel every enemy, and that the city mignt for ever remain 



THE KEIGN OF IVAN IV. 237 

the glorious heritagt of Russia. Having traversed the whole 
city and designated the places for the erection of churches, 
the tzar gave orders for the immediate rebuilding of the for- 
tifications, and then, accompanied by his court, he took pos- 
session of the palace of the khan, over which now floated the 
banners of the cross. 

It was thus that one of the most considerable piincipali- 
ties of the descendants of Ghengis Khan fell into the hands of 
Russia. Kezan was founded upon the ruins of ancient Bul- 
garia, and, situated upon the frontiers of Russia, had long 
filled the empire with terror. Ivan immediately established a 
new government for the city and the surrounding region, 
which was occupied by five different nations, powerful in num- 
bers and redoubtable in war. An army of about ten thousand 
men was left to garrison the fortresses of the city. On the 
11th of October the emperor prepared to return to Moscow. 
Many of the lords counseled that he should remain at Kezan 
until spring, that the more distant regions might be overawed 
by the presence of the army. But the monarch, impatient to 
see his spouse and to present himself in Moscow fresh from 
these fields of glory, rejected these sage counsels and adopted 
the advice of those who also wished to repose beneath the 
laurels they had already acquired. Passing the night of the 
11th of October on the banks of the Volga, he embarked on 
the morning of the 12th in a barge to ascend the stream, while 
the cavalry followed along upon the banks. The emperor 
passed one day at Sviazk and then proceeded to Nigni Nov- 
gorod. The M^hole city, men, women and children, flocked to 
meet him. They could not find words strong enough to 
express their gratitude for their deliverance from the terrible 
incursions of the horde. They fell at their monarch's feet, 
bathed his hands with their tears and implored Heaven's 
blessing upon him. 

From Nigni Novgorod the emperor took the land route 
through Balakna aLd Vladimir to Moscow. On the way he 



238 THE EMPIBE OF RUSSIA. 

met a courier from the Empress Anastasia, announciDg to him 
that she had given birth to a son whom she named Dmitri, 
The tzar, in the tumult of his joy, leaped from his horse, pas- 
sionately embraced Trakhaniot, the herald, and then falling 
upon his knees with tears trickling down his cheeks, rendered 
thanks to God for the gift. Not knowing how upon the spot 
to recompense the herald for the blissful tidings, he took the 
royal cloak from his own shoulders and spread it over Trak- 
haniot, and passed into his hands the magnificent charger 
from which the monarch had just alighted. He spent the 
night of the 28th of October in a small village but a few miles 
from Moscow, all things being prepared for his triumphant 
entrance into the capital the next day. With the earliest 
light of the morning he advanced toward the city. The 
crowd, even at that early hour, was so great that, for a dis- 
tance of four miles, there was but a narrow passage left 
through the dense ranks of the people for the tzar and his 
guard. The emperor advanced slowly, greeted by the acclaim 
of more than a million of his people. With uncovered head he 
bowed to the right and to the left, while the multitude inces- 
santly cried, " May Heaven grant long life to our pious tzar, 
conqueror of barbarians and saviour of Christians." 

At the gate he was met by the metropolitan, the bishops, 
the lords and the princes ranged in order of procession under 
the sacred banner. Ivan lY. dismounted and addressed them 
in touching words of congratulation. The response of the 
metropolitan was soulfull, flooding the eyes of the monarch 
and exciting all who heard it to the highest enthusiasm. 

" As for us, O tzar," he said, in conclusion, " in testimony 
of our gratitude for your toils and your glorious exploits, we 
prostrate ourselves before you." 

At these words the metropolitan, the clergy, the dignita- 
ries and the people fell upon their knees before their sover- 
eign, bowing their faces to the ground. There were sobbings 
and shoutings, cries of benedictions and transports of joy. 



THE EEIGN OF lYAN IV. 289 

The monarch was now conducted to the Kremlin, which had 
been rebuilt, and attended mass in the church of the Assump- 
tion. He then hastened to the palace to greet his spouse. 
The happy mother was in the chamber of convalescence with 
her beautiful boy at her side. For once, at least, there was 
joy in a palace. 

The enthusiasm which reigned in the capital and through- 
out all Russia was such as has never been surpassed. The 
people, trained to faith and devotion, crowded the churches, 
which were constantly open, addressing incessant thanksgiv- 
ings to Heaven. The preachers exhausted the powers of 
eloquence in describing the grandeur of the actions of their 
prince — his exertions, flitigues, bravery, the stratagems of war 
during the siege, the despairing ferocity of the Kezanians and 
the final and glorious result. 

After several days passed in the bosom of his family, Ivan 
gave a grand festival in his palace, on the 8th of November. 
The metropolitan, the bishops, the abbes, the princes, and all 
the lords and warriors who had distinguished themselves dur- 
ing the siege of Kezan, were invited. " Never," say the 
annalists, *' had there before been seen at Moscow a fete so 
sumptuous, joy so intense, or liberality so princely." The 
i^te continued for three days, during which the emperor did 
not cease to distribute, with a liberal hand, proofs of his mu- 
nificence. His bounty was extended from the metropolitan 
bishop down to the humblest soldier distinguished for his 
bravery or his wounds. The monarch, thus surrounded with 
glory, beloved by his people, the conqueror of a foreign em- 
pire and the pacificator of his own, distinguished for the noble- 
ness of his personal character and the grandeur of his exploits, 
alike wise as a legislator and humane as a man, was still but 
twenty-two years of age. His career thus far presents a phe- 
nomenon quite unparalleled in history. 

As soon as Anastasia was able to leave her couch she ac- 
companied the tzar to the monastery of Yroitzky, where his 



240 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

infant son Dmitri received the ordinance of baptism. It seems 
to be the doom of life that every calm should be succeeded by 
a storm ; that days of sunshine should be followed by darkness 
and tempests. Early in the year 1553 tidings reached Mos- 
cow that the barbarians at Kezan were in bloody insurrection. 
The Russian troops had been worsted in many conflicts ; very 
many of them were slain. The danger was imminent that the 
insurrection would prove successful, and that the Russians 
would be entirely exterminated from Kezan. The imprudence 
of the emperor, in withdrawing before the conquest was con- 
solidated, was now apparent to all. To add to the consterna- 
tion the monarch himself was suddenly seized with an inflam- 
matory fever ; the progress of the malady was so rapid that 
almost immediately his life was despaired of The mind of 
the tzar was unclouded, and being informed of his danger, 
without any apparent agitation he called for his secretary to 
draw up his last will and testament. The monarch nominated 
for his successor his infant son, Dmitri. To render the act 
more imposing, he requested the lords, who were assembled 
in an adjoining saloon, to take the oath of allegiance to his 
son. Immediately the spirit of revolt was manifested. Many 
of the lords dreaded the long minority of the infant prince, 
and the government of the regency which would probably 
ensue. The contest, loud and angry, reached the ears of the 
king, and he sent for the refractory lords to approach his bed- 
side. Ivan, burning with fever, with hardly strength to speak, 
and expecting every hour to die, turned his eyes to them re- 
proachfully and said, 

" Who then do you wish to choose for your tzar ? I am 
too feeble to speak long. Dmitri, though in his cradle, is 
none the less your legitimate sovereign. If you are deaf to 
the voice of conscience you must answer for it before God." 

One of the nobles frankly responded, 

" Sire, we are all devoted to you and to your son. But 
we fear the regency of Yourief, who will undoubtedly govern 



THE BEIGN OF IVAN IV. 241 

Russia in the name of an infant who has not yet attained his 
intellectual faculties. This is the true cause of our solicitude. 
To how many calamities were we not exposed during the gov- 
ernment of the lords, before your majesty had attained the 
age of reason. It is necessary to avoid the recurrence of such 
woes." 

The monarch was now too feeble to speak, and the nobles 
withdrew from his chamber. Some took the oath to obey the 
will of the sovereign, others refused, and the bitter strife ex- 
tended through the city and the kingdom. The dissentients 
rallied round prince Vladimir, and the nation was threatened 
with civil war. The next day the tzar had revived a little, 
and again assembled the lords in his chamber and entreated 
them to take the oath of submission to his son and to Anas- 
tasia, the guardian of the infant prince. Overcome by the 
exertion the monarch sank into a state of lethargy, and to all 
seemed to be dying. But being young, temperate and vigor- 
ous, it proved but the crisis of the disease. He awoke from 
his sleep calm and decidedly convalescent. Deeply wounded 
by the unexpected opposition which he had encountered, he 
yet manifested no spirit of revenge, though Anastasia, with 
woman's more sensitive nature, could never forget the opposi- 
tion which had been manifested towards herself and her child. 

Ivan during his sickness had made a vow that, in case of 
recovery, he would visit, in homage, the monastery of St. 
Cyrille, some thousand miles distant beyond the waves of the 
Volga. It is pleasant to record the remonstrance which Max- 
ime, one of the clergy, made against the fulfillment of his 
wishes. 

"You are about," said he, "to undertake a dangerous 
journey with your spouse and your infant child. Can the 
fulfillment of a vow which reason disapproves, be agreeable to 
God ? It is useless to seek in deserts that heavenly Father 
who fills the universe with his presence. If you desire to 
testify to Heaven the gratitude you feel, do good upon the 



242 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

throne. The conquest of Kezan, an event so propitious for 
Russia, has nevertheless caused the death of many Christians. 
The widows, the mothers, the orphans of warriors who fell 
upon the field of honor, are overwhelmed with affliction. 
Endeavor to comfort them and to dry their tears by your 
beneficence. These are the deeds pleasing to God and wor- 
thy of a tzar." 

Nevertheless the monarch persisted in his plan, and en- 
tered upon the long journey. He buried his child by the way, 
and returned overwhelmed with grief. But he encountered 
a greater calamity than the death of the young prince, in 
bad advice which he received from Yassian, the aged and 
venerable prince of Kolumna. 

" Sire," said this unwise ecclesiastic, " if you wish to be- 
come a monarch truly absolute, ask advice of no one, and 
deem no one wiser than yourself. Establish it as an irrevoca- 
ble principle never to receive the counsels of others, but, on the 
contrary, give counsel to them. Command, but never obey. 
Then you will be a true sovereign, terrible to the lords. Re- 
member that the counselors of the wisest princes always in 
the end dominate over them." 

The subtle poison which this discourse distilled, penetrated 
the soul of Ivan. He seized the hand of Yassian, pressed it 
to his lips, and said, 

" My father himself could not have given me advice more 
salutary." 

Bitterly was the prince deceived. Experience has proved 
that, in the counsel of the wise and virtuous, there is safety. 
There was no sudden change in the character of Ivan. He 
still continued for some years to manifest the most sincere 
esteem for the opinions of Sylvestre and Adachef. But the 
poison of bad principles ^vas gradually difi'using itself through 
his heart. A year had not passed away, ere Ivan was con. 
soled by the birth of another son. In the meantime he de- 
voted himself with ardor to measures for the restoration of 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 243 

tranquillity in Kezan. A numerous array was assembled at 
Nigni Novgorod, with orders to commence the campaign for 
the reconquest of the country as soon as the cold of winter 
should bridge the lakes and streams. The Tartars had made 
very vigorous efforts to repel their foes, by summoning every 
fighting man to the field, and by the construction of fortresses 
and throwing up of redoubts. 

In November of 1553, the storm of battle was recom 
menced on fields of ice, and amidst smothering tempests of 
snow. For more than a month there was not a day without 
a conflict. In these incessant engagements the Tartars lost 
ten thousand men slain and six thousand prisoners. One 
thousand six hundred of the most distinguished of these prist- 
oners, princes, nobles and chieftains, who had been the most 
conspicuous in the rebellion, were put to death. Nevertho 
less these severities did not stifle the insurrection ; the Tar- 
tars, in banditti bands, even crossing the Volga, pillaging, 
massacring and burning with savage cruelty. For five years 
the war raged in Kezan, with every accompaniment of ferocity 
and misery. The country was devastated and almost depopu- 
lated. Hardly a chief of note was left alive. The horrors 
of war then ceased. The Russians took possession of the 
country, filled it with their own emigrants, reared churches, 
established Christianity, and spread over the community the 
protection of Russian law. Most of the Kezanians who re- 
mained embraced Christianity, and from that time Kezan, the 
ancient Bulgaria, has remained an integral portion of the 
Russian empire. 

Soon after, a new conquest, more easy, but not less glori- 
ous, was added to that of Kezan. The city and province of 
Astrachan, situated at the mouth of the Volga as it enters 
the Caspian, had existed from the remotest antiquity, enjoying 
wealth and renown, even before the foundation of the Russian 
empire. In the thu'd century of the Christian era, it was 
celebrated for its commerce, and it became one of the favorite 



244 THE EMPIRE OF KUSSIA. 

capitals of the all-conquering Tartars. Russia, being now in 
possession of all the upper waters of the Volga, decided to 
extend their dominions down the river to the Caspian. It 
was not difficult to find ample causes of complaint against 
pagan and barbaric hordes, whose only profession was robbery 
and war. 

Early in the spring of 1554 a numerous and choice army 
descended the Volga in bateaux to the delta on which Astra- 
chan is built. The low lands, intersected by the branching 
stream, is corflposed of innumerable islands. The inhabitants 
of the city, abandoning the capital entirely, took refuge 
among these islands, where they enjoyed great advantages 
in repelling assailants. The Russians took possession of the 
city, prosecuted the war vigorously through the summer, and 
the tzar, on the 20th of October, which was his birthday, 
received the gratifying intelligence that every foe was quelled, 
and that the Russian government was firmly established on 
the shores of the Caspian. Well might Russia now be proud 
of its territorial greatness. The opening of these new realm3 
encouraged commerce, promoted wealth, and developed to an 
extraordinary degree the resources of the empire. 

England was, at that time, far beyond the bounds of the 
political horizon of Russia. In fact, the Russians hardly knew 
that there was such a nation. Great Britain was not, at that 
time, a maritime power of the first order. Spain, Portugal, 
Venice and Genoa were then the great monarchs of the ocean. 
England was just beginning to become the dangerous rival of 
those States whom she has already so infinitely surpassed in 
maritime greatness. She had then formed the project of open- 
ing a shorter route to the Indies through the North Sea, and, 
in 1553, during the reign of Edward VI., had dispatched an 
expedition of three vessels, under Hugh Willoughby, in search 
of a north-east passage. These vessels, separated by a tem- 
pest, were unable to reunite, and two of them were wrecked 
upon the icy coast of Russian Lapland in the extreme latitude 



THE RETGN OF IVAN IV. 245 

of eighty degrees north. Willoughby and his companions per- 
ished. Some Lapland fishermen found their remains in the 
winter of the year 1554. Willoughby was seated in a cabin 
constructed upon the shore with his journal before him, with 
which he appeared to have been occupied until the moment of 
his death. The other ship, commanded by Captain Chanceller, 
was more fortunate. He penetrated the White Sea, and, on 
the 24th of August, landed in the Bay of Dwina at the Rus- 
sian monastery of St. Nicholas, where now stands the city of 
Archangel. The English informed the inhabitants, who were 
astonished at the apparition of such a ship in their waters, 
that they were bearers of a letter to the tzar from the King 
of England, who desired to establish commercial relations with 
the great and hitherto almost unknown northern empire. 
The commandant of the country furnished the mariners with 
provisions, and immediately dispatched a courier to Ivan at 
Moscow, which was some six hundred miles south of the Bay 

of Dwina. 

Ivan IV. wisely judged that this circumstance might prove 
favorable to Russian commerce, and immediately sent a cou- 
rier to invite Chanceller to come to Moscow, at the same 
time making arrangements for him to accomplish the journey 
with speed and comfort. Chanceller, with some of his officers, 
accepted the invitation. Arriving at Moscow, the English 
were struck with astonishment in view of the magnificence of 
the court, the polished address and the dignified manners of 
the nobles, the rich costume of the courtiers, and, particularly, 
with the jeweled and golden brilliance of the throne, upon 
which was seated a young monarch decorated in the most 
dazzling style of regal splendor, and in whose presence all 
observed the most respectful silence. Chanceller presented 
to Ivan IV. the letter of Edward VI. It was a noble letter, 
worthy of England's monarch, and, being translated into many 
languages, was addressed generally to all the sovereigns of 
the East and the North. The letter was dated, " London, in 



246 THE EMPIRE OF KLSSIA. 

the year 55] 7 of the creation, and of our reign the 17." The 
English were honorably received, and were invited to dine 
with the tzar in the royal palace, which furnished them with a 
new occasion of astonishment from the suraptuousness which 
surrounded the sovereign. The guests, more than a hundred 
in number, were served on plates of gold. The goblets were 
of the same metal. The servants, one hundred and fifty in 
number, were also in livery richly decorated with gold lace. 

The tzar wrote to Edward that he desired to form with 
him an alliance of friendship conformable to the precepts of 
the Christian religion and of every wise government ; that 
he was anxious to do any thing in his power which should be 
agreeable to the King of England, and that the English em- 
bassadors and merchants who might come to Russia should 
be protected, treated as friends and should enjoy perfect 
security. 

When Chanceller returned to England, Edward YI. was 
already in the tomb, and Mary, Bloody Mary^ the child of 
brutal Henry YIIL, was on the throne. The letter of Ivan 
IV. caused intense excitement throughout England. Every 
one spoke of Russia as of a country newly discovered, and all 
were eager to obtain information respecting its history and its 
geography. An association of merchants was immediately 
formed to open avenues of commerce with this new world. 
Another expedition of two ships was fitted out, commanded 
by Chanceller, to conclude a treaty of commerce with the 
tzar. Mary, and her husband, Philip of Spain, who was son 
of the Emperor Charles Y., wrote a letter to the Russian 
monarch fall of the most gracious expressions. 

Chanceller and his companions were received with the same 
cordial hospitality as before. Ivan gave them a seat at his own 
table, loaded them with favors and gave to the Queen of En* 
gland the title of " my dearly beloved sister." A commission 
of Russian merchants was apppointed to confer with the En- 
glish to form a commercial treaty. It was decided that the 



THE RKIGN OF IVAN IV. 247 

principal place for the exchange of merchandise should be at 
Kolmogar, on the Bay of Dvvina, nearly opposite the convent 
of St. Nicholas ; that each party should be free to name its 
own prices, but that every kind of fraud should be judged 
after the criminal code of Russia. Ivan then delivered to the 
English a diploma, granting them permission to traffic freely in 
all the cities of Russia without molestation and without pay- 
ing any tribute or tax. They were free to establish themselves 
wherever they pleased, to purchase houses and shops, and to 
engage servants and mechanics in their employ, and to exact 
from them oaths of fidelity. It was also agreed that a man 
should be responsible for his own conduct only, and not for 
that of his agents, and that though the sovereign might pun- 
ish the criminal with the loss of liberty and even of life, yet, 
under no circumstances, should he touch his property; that 
should always pass to his natural heirs. 

The port of St. Nicholas, which, for ages, had been silent 
and solitary in these northern waters where the English had 
found but a poor and gloomy monastery, the tomb, as it were, 
of hooded monks, soon became a busy place of traffic. The 
English constructed there a large and beautiful mansion for 
the accommodation of their merchants, and streets were 
formed, lined with spacious storehouses. The principal mer- 
chandise which the English then imported into Russia con- 
sisted of cloths and sugar. The merchants offered twelve 
guineas for ^vhat was then called a half piece of cloth, and 
four shilling§,a pound for sugar. 

In 1556, Chanceller embarked for England with four ships 
richly laden with the gold and the produce of Russia, accom- 
panied by Joseph Nepeia, an embassador to the Queen of 
England. Fortune, which, until then, had smiled upon this 
hardy mariner, now turned adverse. Tempests dispersed his 
ships, and one only reached London. Chanceller himself 
perished in the waves upon the coast of Scotland. The ships 
dashed upon the rocks, and the Russian embassador, Nepeia, 



248 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

barely escaped with his life. Arriving at London, he was 
overwhelmed with caresses and presents. The most distin- 
guished dignitaries of the State and one hundred and forty 
merchants, accompanied by a great number of attendants, all 
richly clad and mounted upon superb horses, rode out to meet 
him. They presented to him a horse magnificently capar- 
isoned, and thus escorted, the first Russian embassador made 
liis entrance into the capital of Great Britain. The inhabit- 
ants of London crowded the streets to catch a sight of the 
illustrious Russian, and thousands of voices greeted him with 
the heartiest acclaim. A magnificent mansion was assigned 
for his residence, which was furnished in the highest style of 
splendor. He was invited to innumerable festivals, and the 
court were eager to exhibit to him every thing worthy of 
notice in the city of London. He was conducted to the 
cathedral of St. Paul, to Westminster Abbey, to the Tower 
and to all the parks and palaces. The queen received Nepeia 
with the most marked consideration. At one of the most 
gorgeous festivals he was seated by her side, the observed of 
all observers. 

The embassador could only regret that the rich presents 
of furs and Russian fabrics which the tzar had sent by his hand 
to Mary, were all engulfed upon the coast of Scotland. The 
queen sent to the tzar the most beautiful fabrics of the En- 
glish looms, the most exquisitely constructed weapons of war, 
such as sabers, guns and pistols, and a living lion and lioness, 
animals which never before had been seen within the bounds 
of the Russian empire. In September, 1557, Nepeia embarked 
for Russia, taking with him several English artisans, miners 
and physicians. Ivan was anxious to lose no opportunity to 
gain from foreign lands every thing which could contribute 
to Russian civilization. The letter which Mary and Philip 
returned to Moscow was flatteringly addressed to the august 
emperor, Ivan IV. When the tzar learned all the honors 
and the testimonials of affection with which his embassador 



THE REIGN OF IVAN IV. 249 

had been greeted in London, he considered the English as the 
most precious of all the friends of Russia. He ordered man- 
sions to be prepared for the accommodation of their merchants 
in all the commercial cities of the empire, and he treated them 
in other respects with such marked tokens of regard, that all 
the letters which they wrote to London were filled with ex- 
pressions of gratitude towards the Russian sovereign. 

In the year 1557 an English commercial fleet entered the 
Baltic Sea and proceeded to the mouth of the Dwina to estab- 
lish there an entrepot of English merchandise. The com- 
mander-in-chief of the squadron visited Moscow, where he wag 
received with the greatest cordiality, and thence passed down 
the Volga to Astrachan, that he might there establish com- 
mercial relations with Persia. The tzar, reposing entii-e con- 
fidence in the London merchants, entered into their views and 
promised to grant them every facihty for the transportation 
of English merchandise, even to the remotest sections of the 
empire. This commercial alliance with Great Britain, ibunded 
upon reciprocal advantages, without any commingling of po- 
litical jealousies, was impressed with a certain character of 
magnanimity and fraternity which greatly augmented the 
renown of the reign of Ivan IV., and which was a signal 
proof of the sagacity of his administration. How beautiful are 
tlie records of peace when contrasted with the hideous annals 
of war ! 

The merchants of the other nations of southern and west- 
ern Europe were not slow to profit by the discovery that the 
English had made. Ships from Holland, freighted with the 
goods of that ingenious and industrious people, were soon 
coasting along the bays of the great empire, and penetrating 
her rivers, engaged in traflic which neither Russia or England 
seemed disposed to disturb. While the tzar was engaged in 
those objects which we have thus rapidly traced, other ques- 
tions of immense magnitude engrossed his mind. The Tartar 
horde in Tauride terrified by the destruction of the horde in 

11* 



250 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

Kezan, were ravaging southern Russia with coDtinual inva- 
sions which the tzar found it difficult to repress. Poland was 
also hostile, ever watching for an opportunity to strike a 
deadly blow, and Sweden, under Gustavus Yasa, was in open 
war with the empire. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE ABDICATION OF ITAN IV. 
From 1557 to 1582. 

Teekob of the Horde ik Tattribk. — War with Gustavus Va8a of Sweden. — Po- 
litical Punctilios. — The Kingdom op Livonia Annexed to Sweden. — Death 
OF ANASTAgiA. — Conspiracy Against Ivan.— -His Abdication. — His Eesumption 
OF THE Crown. — Invasion of Russia by tue Tartars and Turks. — Heroism of 
Zebrinow. — Utter Discomfiture of the Tartars. — Relations Between Queen 
Elizabeth of England, and Russia. — Intrepid Embassage. — New War with 
Poland. — Disastep^s of Russia. — The Emperor Kills His Own Son. — Anguish of 
Ivan IV. 

nj'^HE entire subjugation of the Tartars in Kezan terrified 
-A. the horde in Tauride, lest their turn to be overwhelmed 
should next come. Devlet Ghirei, the khan of this horde, 
was a man of great ability and ferocity. Ivan IV. was urged 
by his counselors immediately to advance to the conquest 
of the Crimea. The achievement could then doubtless 
have been easily accomplished. But it was a journey ol 
nearly a thousand miles from Moscow to Tauride. The route 
was very imperfectly known ; much of the intervening region 
was an inhospitable wilderness. The Sultan of Turkey was 
the sovereign master of the horde, and Ivan feared that all 
the terrible energies of Turkey would be roused against him. 
There was, moreover, another enemy nearer at home 
whom Ivan had greater cause to fear. Gustavus Yasa, the 
King of Sweden, had, for some time, contemplated with 
alarm the rapidly increasing power of Russia. He according- 
ly formed a coalition with the Kings of Poland and Livonia, 
and with the powerful Dukes of Prussia and of Denmark, for 
those two States were then but dukedoms, to oppose tbe am- 



252 THE EMPIRE OF KUSSIA. 

bition of the tzar. An occasion for hostilities was found in a 
dispute, respecting the boundaries between Russia and Sweden. 
The terrible tragedy of war was inducted by a prologue of 
burning villages, trampled harvests and m:issacred peasants, 
upon the frontiers. Sieges, bombardments and tierce battles en- 
sued, with the alternations of success. From one triumphal 
march of invasion into Sweden, the Russians returned so 
laden with prisoners, that, as their annalists record, a man 
was sold for one dollar, and a girl for five shillings. 

At length, as usual, both parties became weary of toil and 
blood, and were anxious for a respite. Gustavus proposed 
terms of reconciliation. Ivan lY. accepted the overtures, 
though he returned a reproachful and indignant answer. 

" Your people," he wrote, " have exhausted their ferocity 
upon our territories. Not only have they burned our cities 
and massacred our subjects, but they have even profaned our 
churches, purloined our images and destroyed our bells. The 
inhabitants of Novgorod implored the aid of our grand army. 
My soldiers burned with impatience to carry the war to 
Stockholm, but I restrained them ; so anxious was I to avoid 
the effusion of human blood. All the misery resulting from 
this war, is to be attributed to your pride. Admitting that 
you were ignorant of the grandeur of Novgorod, you might 
have learned the facts from your own merchants. They could 
have told you, that even the suburbs of Novgorod are superior 
to the whole of your capital of Stockholm. Lay aside this 
pride, and give up your quarrelsome disposition. We are wil- 
ling to live in peace with you." 

Sweden was not in a condition to resent this rebuke. In 
February, 1557, the embassadors of Gustavus, consisting of 
four of the most illustrious men in the empire, clergy and 
nobles, accompanied by a brilliant suite, arrived in Moscow 
They were not received as friends, but as distinguished pris- 
oners, who were to be treated with consideration, and whose 
wants were to be abundantly supplied. The tzar refused to 



THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 253 

have any direct intercourse with them, and would only treat 
through the dignitaries of his court. A truce was concluded 
for forty years. The tzar, to impress the embassadors with 
his wealth and grandeur, entertained them sumptuously, and 
they were served from vessels of gold. 

Though peace w^as thus made with Sweden, a foolish quar- 
j*el, for some time, prevented the conclusion of a treaty with 
Poland. Ivan lY. demanded, that Augustus, King of Poland, 
should recognize him as Emperor of Russia. Augustus re- 
plied, that there were but two emperors in the world, the 
Emperor of Germany and the Sultan of Turkey. Ivan sent, 
through his embassadors, to Augustus ; the letters of Pope 
Clement, of the Emperor Maximilian, of the Sultan, of the 
Kings of Spain, Sweden and Denmark, and the recent dis- 
patch of the King of England, all of whom recognized his 
title of tzar, or emperor. Still, the Polish king would not 
allow Ivan a title, which seemed to place the Russian throne 
on an eminence above that of Poland. Unfriendly relations 
consequently continued, with jealousies and border strifes, 
though there was no vigorous outbreak of war. 

Ivan lY. now succeeded in attaching Livonia to the great 
and growing empire. It came in first as tributary, purchasing, 
by an annual contribution, peace with Russia and protection. 
Though there were many subsequent conflicts with Livonia, 
the territory subsequently became an integral portion of the 
empire. Russia had now become so great, that her growth 
was yearly manifest as surrounding regions were absorbed by 
her superior civilization and her armies. The unenlightened 
States which surrounded her, were ever provoking hostilities, 
invasion, and becoming absorbed. In the year 1558, the Tar- 
tars of Tauride, having assembled an army of one hundred 
thousand horsemen, a combination of Tartars and Tuiks, 
suddenly entered Russia, and sweeping resistlessly on, a war 
tempest of utter desolation, reached within two hundred miles 
of Moscow. There they learned that Ivan himself, with an 



254 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

army more numerous than their own, was on the march to 
meet them. Turning, they retreated more rapidly than they 
advanced. N^otwithstanding their retreat, Ivan resolved to 
pursue them to their own haunts. A large number of bateaux 
was constructed and launched upon the Don and also upon 
the Dnieper. The army, in these two divisions, descended 
these streams, one to the Sea of Azof, the other to the mouth 
of the Dnieper. Thence invading Tauride, both by the east 
and the west, they drove the terrified inhabitants, taken en- 
tirely by surprise, like sheep before them. The tents of these 
nomads they committed to the flames. Their flocks and 
herds were seized, with a great amount of booty, and many 
Russian caj^tives were liberated. The Tartars fled to fast- 
nesses whence they could not be pursued. Some Turks 
being taken with the horde, Ivan sent them with rich pres- 
ents to the sultan, stating that he did not make war against 
Turkey, only against the robbers of Tauride. The Russian 
troops returned from this triumphant expedition, by ascend- 
ing the waters of the Dnieper. All Russia was filled with 
rejoicing, while the churches resounded with " Te Deums." 

And now domestic griefs came to darken the palace of 
Ivan. For thirteen years he had enjoyed all the happiness 
which conjugal love can confer. Anastasia was still in the 
brilliance of youth and beauty, when she was attacked by 
dangerous sickness. As she was lying upon her couch, help- 
less and burning with fever, the cry of fire was heard. The 
day was excessively hot ; the windows of the palace all open, 
and a drouth of several weeks made every thing dry as tinder. 
The conflagration commenced in an adjoining street, and, in a 
moment, volumes of flame and smoke were swept by the wind, 
enveloping the Kremlin, and showering upon it and into it, 
innumerable flakes of fire. The queen w^as thrown into a 
paroxysm of terror ; the attendiints hastily placed her upon a 
litter and bore her, almost suffocated, through the blazing 
streets out of the city, to the village of Kolomensk. The 



THE ABDICATION OF lYAN IV. 25it 

emperor then returned to assist in arresting the conflagration. 
He exposed himself like a common laborer, inspiring others 
with intrepidity by mounting ladders, carrying water and 
opposing the flames in the most dangerous positions. The 
conflagration proved awful in its ravages, many of the inhab- 
itants perishing in the flames. 

This calamitous event was more than the feeble frame of 
Anastasia could endure. She rapidly failed, and on the Yth 
of August, 1560, she expired. The grief of Ivan was heart- 
rending, and never was national atiiiction manifested in a 
more sincere and touching manner. Not only the whole 
court, but almost the entire city of Moscow, followed the re- 
mains of Anastasia to their interment. Many, in the bitter- 
ness of their grief, sobbed aloud. The most inconsolable 
were the poor and friendless, calling Anastasia by the name 
of mother. The anguish of Ivan for a time quite unmanned 
him, and he wept like a child. The loss of Anastasia did 
indeed prove to Ivan the greatest of earthly calamities. 
She had been his guardian angel, his guide to virtue. Having 
lost his guide, he fell into many errors from which Anastasia 
would have preserved him. 

In the course of a few months, either the tears of Ivan were 
dried up, or political considerations seemed to render it neces- 
sary for him to seek another wife. Notwithstanding the long 
hereditary hostility which had existed between Russia and 
Poland, perhaps in consequence of it, Ivan made proposals for 
a Polish princess, Catharine, sister of Sigismond Augustus, the 
king. The Poles demanded, as an essential item in the mar- 
riage contract, that the children of Catharine should take the 
precedence of those of Anastasia as heirs to the throne. This 
iniquitous demand the tzar rejected with the scorn it merited. 
The revenore in which the Poles indulgred was characteristic 
of the rudeness of the times. The court of Augustus sent a 
white mare, beautifully caparisoned, to Ivan, with the message, 
*hat such a wife he would find to be in accordance with his 



256 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

character and wants. The outrageous insult incensed Ivan to 
the highest degree, and he vowed that the Poles should feel 
the weight of his displeasure. Catharine, in the meantime, was 
married to the Duke of Finland, who was brother to the King 
of Sweden, and whose sister was married to the King of Den- 
mark. Thus the three kingdoms of Poland, Sweden and 
Denmark, and the Duchy of Finland were strongly allied by 
matrimonial ties, and were ready to combine against the Rus- 
sian emperor. 

Ivan IV. nursed his vengeance, waiting for an opportunity 
to strike a blow which should be felt. Elizabeth was now 
Queen of England, and her embassador at the court of Russia 
was in high favor with the emperor. Probably through his 
influence Ivan showed great favor to the Lutheran clergy, 
who were gradually gaining followers in the empire. He fre- 
q^iently admitted them to court, and even listened to their 
arguments in favor of the reformed religion. The higher 
clergy and the lords were much incensed by this liberality, 
w^hich, in their view, endangered the ancient usages, both 
civil and religious, of the realm, and a very formidable con- 
spiracy was organized against the tzar. 

Ivan lY. was apprised of the conspiracy, and, with singular 
boldness and magnanimity, immediately assembled his leading 
nobles and higher clergy in the great audience-chamber of the 
Krerahn. He presented himself before them in the glittering 
robes and with all the insignia of royalty. Divesting himself 
of them all, he said to his astonished auditors, 

" You have deemed me unworthy any longer to occupy 
the throne. I here and now give in my abdication, and re- 
quest you to nominate some person whom you may consider 
worthy to be your sovereign." 

Without permitting any reply he dismissed them, and tne 
next day convened all the clergy of Moscow in the church of 
St. Mary. A high mass was celebrated by the metropolitan, 
in which the monarch assisted, and he then took an affecting 



THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 257 

leave of them all, in a solemn renunciation of all claims to the 
crown. Accompanied by his two sons, he retired to the strong 
yet secluded castle of Caloujintz, situated about live miles 
from Moscow. Here he remained several days, waiting, it is 
generally supposed, for a delegation to call, imploring him 
again to resume the crown. In this expectation he was not 
disappointed. The lords were unprepared for such decisive 
action. In their councils there was nothing but confusion. 
Anarchy was rapidly commencing its reign, w^hich would be 
followed inevitably by civil war. The partisans of the em- 
peror in the provinces were very numerous, and could be 
rallied by a word from him; and no one imagined that the 
emperor had any idea of retiring so peacefully. It was not 
doubted that he would soon appear at the head of an army, 
and punish relentlessly the disaffected, w^ho would all then be 
revealed. The citizens, the nobles and the clergy met to- 
gether and appointed a numerous deputation to call upon the 
emperor and implore him again to resume the reins of power. 

" Your faithful subjects, sire," exclaimed the petitioners, 
" are deeply afflicted. The State is exposed to fearful peril 
from dissension within and enemies without. We do there- 
fore most earnestly entreat your majesty, as a faithful shep- 
herd, still to watch over his flock ; we do entreat you to 
return to your throne, to continue your favor to the deserving, 
and not to forsake your faithful subjects in consequence of the 
errors of a few." 

Ivan listened with much apparent indifference to this 
pathetic address, and either really felt, or affected, great 
reluctance again to resume the cares of royalty. He re- 
quested a day's time to consider their proposal. The next 
morning the nobles were again convened, and Ivan acquaint- 
ed them with his decision. Rebuking them with severity for 
their ingratitude, reproaching them with the danger to which 
his life had been exposed through their conspiracy, he de- 
clared that he could not again assume the cares and the 



258 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

perils of the crown. Still his refusal was not so decisive as 
to exclude all room for further entreaties. They renewed 
their supplications with tears, for Russia was, indeed, exposed 
to all the horrors of civil war, should Ivan persist in his re- 
solve, and it was certain that the empire, thus distracted, 
would at once be invaded by both Poles and Turks. 

Thus importuned, Ivan at last consented to return to the 
Kremlin. He resolved, however, to make an example of 
those who had conspired against him, which should warn 
loudly against the renewal of similar attempts. The principal 
movers in the plot were executed. Ivan then surrounded 
himself with a body guard of two hundred men carefully 
selected from the distant provinces, and who were in no way 
under the influence of any of the lords. This body guard, 
composed of low-born, uneducated men, incapable of being 
roused to any high enthusiasm, subsequently proved quite a 
nuisance. 

Ivan TV. had but just resumed his seat upon the throne 
when couriers from the southern provinces brought the alarm- 
ing intelligence that an immense army of combined Tartars 
and Turks had invaded the empire and v/ere on the rapid 
march, burning and destroying all before them. Selim, the 
son and successor of Solyman the Magnificent, entered into 
an alliance with several oriental princes, who were to send 
him succors by the way of the Caspian Sea, and raised an 
army of three hundred thousand men. These troops were 
embarked at Constantinople, and, crossing the Black Sea and 
the Sea of Azof, entered Tauride. Here they were joined by 
a reinforcement of Crimean Tartars, consisting of forty thou- 
sand well-armed and veteran fighters. With this force the 
sultan marched directly across the country to the Russian 
city and province of Astrachan, at the mouth of the Volga. 

But a heroic man, Zerebrinow, was in command of the 
fortresses in this remote province of the Russian empire. He 
immediately assembled all his available troops, and, advancing 



THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 259 

to meet the foe, selected his own ground for the battle in a 
narrow defile where the vast masses of the enemy would only 
encumber each other. Falling upon the invaders unexpectedly 
from ambuscades, he routed the Turks with great carnage. 
They were compelled to retreat, having lost nearly all their 
baggage and heavy artillery. The triumphant Russians pur- 
sued them all the way back to the city of Azof, cannonading 
them with the artillery and the ammunition they had wrested 
from their foes. Here the Turks attempted to make a final 
stand, but a chance shot from one of the guns penetrated the 
immense powder magazine, and an explosion so terrific en- 
sued that two thirds of the city were entirely demolished. 

The Turks, in consternation, now made a rush for their 
ships. But Zerebriuow, with coolness and sagacity which no 
horrors could disturb, had already planted his batteries to 
sweep them with a storm of bullets and balls. The cannonade 
was instantly commenced. The missiles of death fell like hail 
stones into the crowded boats and upon the crowded decks. 
Many of the ships were sunk, others disabled, and but a few, 
torn and riddled, succeeded in escaping to sea, where the most 
of them also perished beneath the waves of the stormy Eux- 
ine. Such was the utter desolation of this one brief war tem- 
pest which lasted but a few weeks. 

Queen Elizabeth, anxious to maintain friendly relations 
with an empire so vast, and opening before her subjects such 
a field of profitable commerce, having been informed of the 
conspiracy against Ivan lY., of his abdication, and of his re- 
sumption of the crown, sent to him an embassador with ex- 
pressions of her kindest wishes, and assured him that should 
he ever be reduced to the disagreeable necessity of leaving 
his empire, he would find a safe retreat in England, where he 
would be received and provided for in a manner suitable to 
his dignity, where he could enjoy the free exercise of his re- 
ligion and be permitted to depart whenever he should wish. 

The tolerant spirit manifested by Ivan IV. towards the 



260 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

Lutherans, continued to disturb the ecclesiastics; and the 
clergy and nobles of the province of Novgorod, headed by 
the archbishop, formed a plot of dissevering Novgorod from 
the empire, and attaching it to the kingdom of Poland. This 
conspiracy assumed a very formidable attitude, and one of the 
brothers of the tzar was involved in it. Ivan immediately 
sent an army of fifteen thousand men to quell the revolt. 
We have no account of this transaction but from the pens of 
those who were envenomed by their animosity to the religious 
toleration of Ivan. We must consequently receive their nar- 
ratives with some allowance. 

The army, according to their account, ravaged the whole 
province ; took the city by storm ; and cut down in indiscrimi- 
nate slaughter twenty-five thousand men, women and children. 
The brother of Ivan lY. was seized and thrown into prison, 
where he miserably perished. The archbishop was stripped 
of his canonical robes, clad in the dress of a harlequin, pa- 
raded through the streets on a gray mare, an object of derision 
to the people, and then was imprisoned for life. Such cruelty 
does not seem at all in accordance with the character of Ivan, 
while the grossest exaggeration is in accordance with the char- 
acter of all civil and religious partisans. 

War with Poland seems to have been the chronic state of 
Russia. Whenever either party could get a chance to strike 
the other a blow, the blow was sure to be given ; and they 
were alike unscrupulous whether it were a saber blow in the 
face or a dagger thrust in the back. In the year 1571, a Rus- 
sian army pursued a discomfited band of Livonian insurgents 
across the frontier into Poland. The Poles eagerly joined the 
insurgents, and sent envoys to invite the Crimean Tartars to 
invade Russia from Tauride, while Poland and Livonia should 
assail the empire from the west. The Tartars were always ready 
for war at a moment's notice. Seventy thousand men were 
immediately on the march. They rapidly traversed the south- 
ern provinces, trampling down all opposition until they reached 



THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 261 

the Oka. Here they encountered a few Russian troops who 
attemj^ted to dispute the passage of the stream. They were, 
however, speedily overpowered by the Tartars and were com- 
pelled to retreat. Pressing on, they arrived within sixty miles 
of the city, when they found the Russians again concentered, 
but now in large numbers, to oppose their progress. A iierce 
battle was fought. Again the Russians were overpowered, 
and the Tartars, trampling them beneath their horses' hoofs, 
with yells of triumph, pressed on towards the metropolis. 
The whole city was in consternation, for it had do means of 
effectual resistance. Ivan lY. in his terror packed up his 
most valuable effects, and, with the I'oyal family, fled to a 
strong fortress far away in the North. 

From the battlements of the city, the banners of these 
terrible barbarians were soon seen on the approach. With 
bugle blasts and savage shouts they rushed in at the gates, 
swept the streets with their sabers, pillaged houses and 
churches, and set the city on fire in all directions. The city 
was at that time, according to the testimony of the cotem- 
porary annalists, forty miles in circumference. The weltering 
flames rose and fell as in the crater of a volcano, and in six 
hours the city was in ashes. Thousands perished in the 
flames. The fire, communicating with a powder magazine, 
produced an explosion which uphove the buildings like an 
earthquake, and prostrated more than a third of a mile of the 
city walls. According to the most reliable testimony, there 
perished in Moscow, by fire and sword, from this one raid of 
the Tartars, more than one hundred and fifty thousand of its 
inhabitants. 

The Tartars, tottering beneath the burden of their spoil, 
and dragging after them many thousand prisoners of distinc- 
tion, slowly, proudly, defiantly retired. With barbaric genius 
they sent to the tzar a naked cimiter, accompanied by the 
following message : 

" This is a token left to your majesty by an enemy, whose 



262 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

reveDge is still unsatiated, and who will soon return again to 
complete the work which he has but just begun." 

Such is war. It is but a succession of miseries. A hun. 
dred and fifty thousand Tartars perished but a few months 
before in the waves of the Euxine. Now, a hundred and fifty 
thousand Russians perish, in their turn, amidst the fiames of 
Moscow. When we contemplate the wars which have inces- 
santly ravaged this globe, the history of man seems to be but 
the record of the strifes of demons, with occasional gleams of 
angel magnanimity. 

After the retreat of the Tartars, Ivan lY. convened a 
council of war, punished with death those ofiicers who had 
fled before the enemy as he himself had done; and, rendered 
pliant by accumulated misfortune, he presented such overtures 
to the King of Poland as to obtain the promise of a truce for 
three years. Soon after this, Sigismond, King of Poland, 
died. The crown was elective, and the nobles, who met to 
choose a new monarch, by a considerable majority invited 
Maximilian II., Emperor of Germany, to assume the scepter. 
They assigned as a reason for this choice, which surprised 
Europe, the religious liberality of the emperor, who, as they 
justly remarked, had conciliated the contending factions of 
the Christian world, and had acquired more glory by his 
pacific policy than other princes had acquired in the exploits 
of war. 

A minority of the nobles were displeased with this choice, 
and refusing to accede to the vote of the majority, proceeded 
to another election, and chose Stephen Bathori, a warrior 
chief of Transylvania, as their sovereign.* The two parties 
now rallied around their rival candidates and prepared for 
war. Ivan lY. could not allow so favorable an opportunity 
to interfere in the politics of Poland to escape him. He im- 
mediately sent embassadors to Maximilian, ofiering to assist 
him with all the power of the Russian armies against Stephen 

* See Empire of Austria, page 181. 



THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 263 

Balhori. Maximilian gratefully acknowledged the generosity 
of the tzar, and promised to return the favor whenever an 
opportunity should be presented. At the same time, Stephen 
Bathori, who had already been crowned King of Poland, sent 
an embassador to Moscow to inform Ivan of his election and 
coronation, and to propose friendly relations with Russia. 
Ivan answered frankly that a treaty already existed between 
him and the Emperor Maximilian, but that, since he wished 
to live on friendly terms with Poland, whoever her monarch 
might be, he would send embassadors to examine into the 
claims of the rival candidates for the crown. Thus adroitly 
he endeavored to obtain for himself the position of umpire 
between Maximilian and Stephen Bathori. The death of the 
Emperor Maximilian on the 12th of October, 1576, settled 
this strife, and Stephen attained the undisputed sovereignty 
of Poland. 

Almost the first measure of the new sovereign, in accord- 
ance with hereditary usage, was war against Russia. His ob- 
ject was to regain those territories which the tzar had here- 
tofore wrested from the Poles. Apparently trivial incidents 
reveal the rude and fierce character of the times. Stephen 
chivalrously sent first an embassador, Basil Lapotinsky, to the 
court of Ivan, to demand the restitution of the provinces. 
Lapotinsky was accompanied by a numerous train of nobles, 
magnificently mounted and armed to the teeth. As the glit- 
tering cavalcade, protected by its flag of truce, swept along 
through the cities of Russia towards Moscow, and it became 
known that they were the bearers of an imperious message, 
demanding the surrender of portions of the Russian empire, the 
populace were with difficulty restrained from falling upon them. 

Through a thousand dangers they reached Moscow. When 
there, Lapotinsky declared that he came not as a suppliant, 
but to present a claim which his master was prepared to 
enforce, if necessary, with the sword, and that, in accord- 
ance with the character of his mission, he was directed, in hia 



264 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

audience with Ivan, to present the letter with one hand while 
he held his unsheathed saber in the other. The oflScers of 
the imperial household assured him that such bravado would 
inevitably cost him his life. 

" The tzar," Lapotinsky replied, " can easily take my life, 
and he may do so if he please, but nothing shall prevent me 
from performing the duty with which I am intrusted, with the 
utmost exactitude." 

The audience day arrived. Lapotinsky was conducted to 
the Kremlin. The tzar, in his imperial robes glittering with 
diamonds and pearls, received him in a magnificent hall. The 
haughty embassador, with great dignity and in respectful 
terms, yet bold and decisive, demanded reparation for the 
injuries which Russia had inflicted upon Poland. His gleam- 
ing saber was carelessly held in one hand and the letter to 
the tzar, from the King of Poland, in the other. Having 
finilbed his brief speech, he received a cimeter from one of 
his suite, and, advancing firmly, yet very respectfully, to the 
monarch, presented them both, saying, 

*' Here is peace and here is war. It is for your majesty to 
choose between them." 

Ivan lY. was capable of appreciating the nobility of such 
a charactei". The intrepidity of the embassador, which was 
defiled with no comminglings of insolence, excited his admira- 
tion. The emperor, with a smile, took the letter, which was 
written on parchment in the Russian language and sealed 
with a seal of gold. Slowly and carefully he read it, and then 
addressing the embassador, said, 

" Such menaces will not induce Russia to surrender her 
dominions to Poland. We, who have vanquished the Poles 
on so many fields of battle, who have conquered the Tartars 
of Kezan and Asti*achan, and who have triumphed over the 
forces of the Ottoman empire, will soon cause the King of 
Poland to repent his rashness." 

He then dismissed the embassador, ordering him to be 



THE ABDICATION OP IVAN IV. 265 

treated with the respect due his high station. War being 
thus formally declared, both parties prepared to prosecute it 
with the utmost vigor. The tzar immediately commenced 
raising a large army, reinforced his garrisons, and sent a 
secret envoy to Tauride, to excite the Crimean Tartars to 
invade Poland on the south-east while Russia should make an 
assault from the north. 

The Poles opened the campaign by crossing the frontiers 
with a large army, seizing several minor cities and laying- 
siege to the important fortress of Polotzk. After a long 
siege, which constituted one of those terrilic tragedies of 
blood and woe with which the pages, of history are filled, but 
which no pen can describe and no imagination can conceive, 
the city, a pile of gory and smouldering ruins, fell into the 
hands of the Poles. Battle after battle, siege after siege 
ensued, in nearly all of which the Poles were successful. 
They were guided by their monarch in person, a veteran 
warrior, who possessed extraordinary military skill. The 
blasts of winter drove both parties from the field. But, in 
the earliest spring, the campaign was opened again with 
redoubled energy. Again the Poles, who had obtained 
strong reinforcements of troops from Germany and Hungary, 
were signally successful. Though the fighting was constant 
and arduous, the whole campaign was but a series of con- 
quests on the part of Stephen, and when the snows of another 
winter whitened the fields, the Polish banners were wavinsr 
over lai"ge portions of the Russian territory. The details of 
these scenes are revolting. Fire, blood and the brutal passions 
of demoniac men were combined in deeds of horror, the recital 
of which makes the ears to tingle. 

Before the buds of another spring had opened into leaf, the 
contending armies were again upon the march. Poland had 
now succeeded in enlisting Sweden in her cause, and Russia 
began to be quite seriously imperiled. Riga, on the Dwina, 
soon fell into the hands of the Poles, and their banners were 

12 



266 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

resistlessly on the advance. Ivan IV., much dejected, pro- 
posed terms of peace. Stephen refused to treat unless Russia 
would surrender the whole of Livonia, a province nearly three 
times as large as the State of Massachusetts, to Poland. The 
tzar was compelled essentially to yield to these hard terms. 

The treaty of peace was signed on the loth of January, 
1582. Ivan IV. surrendered to Poland all of Livonia which 
bordered on Poland, which contained thirty-four towns and 
castles, together with several other important fortresses on 
the frontiers. A truce was concluded for ten years, should 
both parties live so long. But should either die, the survivor 
was at liberty immediately to attack the territory of the de- 
ceased. No mention whatever was made of Sweden in this 
treaty. This neglect gave such offense to the Swedish court, 
that, in petty revenge, they sent an Italian cook to the Polish 
court as an embassador with the most arrogant demands. 
Stephen very wisely treated the insult, which he probably 
deserved, with contempt. 

The result of this war, so humiliating to Russia, rendered 
Ivan very unpoj^ular. Murmurs loud and deep were heard 
all over the empire. Many of the nobles threw themselves at 
the feet of the tzar and entreated him not to assent to so dis- 
graceful a treaty, assuring him that the whole nation were 
ready at his call to rise and drive the invaders from the em- 
pire. Ivan was greatly incensed, and petulantly replied that 
if they were not satisfied with his administration they had 
better choose another sovereign. Suspecting that his son was 
inciting this movement, and that he perhaps was aiming at 
the crown, Ivan assailed him in the bitterest terms of reproach. 
The young prince replied in a manner which so exasperated 
his father, that he struck him with a staff which he had in his 
hand. The staff was tipped with an iron ferule which unfor- 
tunately hit the young man on the temple, and he fell senseless 
at his father's feet. 

The anguish of Ivan was unspeakable. His paroxysm of 



THE ABDICATION OF IVAN IV. 267 

anger instantly gave place to a more intense paroxysm of 
grief and remorse. He threw himself upon the body of his 
son, pressed him fervently to his heart, and addressed him in 
the most endearing terms of affection and affliction. The 
prince so far revived as to be able to exchange a few words 
with his father, but in four days he died. The blow which 
deprived the son of life, for ever after deprived the father of 
peace. He was seldom again seen to smile. Any mention of 
his son would ever throw him into a paroxysm of tears. For 
a long time he could with difficulty be persuaded to take any 
nourishment or to change his dress. With the utmost possible 
demonstrations of grief and respect the remains of the prince 
were conveyed to the grave. The death of this young man 
was a calamity to Russia. He was the worthy son of Anas- 
tasia, and from his mother he had inherited both genius and 
moral worth. By a subsequent marriage Ivan had two other 
sons, Feodor and Dmitri. But they were of different blood ; 
feeble in intellect and possessed no requisites for the exalted 
station opening before them. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

THE STORMS OF HEREDITARY SUCCESSION, 
From 1582 to 1608. 



Anguish and Death of Ivan IV. — His Charactek. — Feodor and Dmitri. — UsitbpA' 
TioN OF Boris Qudenow. — The Polish Election. — Conquest of Siberia. — Assas- 
sination OF DjMItri. — Death of Feodor. — Boris Crowned King. — Conspiracies. 
— Eeappearance of Dmitri. — Boris Poisoned. — The Pretender Crowned. — 
Embarrassments op Dmitri. — A New Pretender. — Assassination of Dmitrl — 
Crowning of Zuskl— Indignation of Poland. — Historical Eomanoe. 



rpHE hasty blow which deprived the son of Ivan of life was 
-*- also fatal to the father. He never recovered from the 
effects. After a few months of anguish and remorse, Ivan IV. 
sank sorrowing to the grave. Penitent, prayerful and assured 
that his sins were forgiven, he met death with perfect com- 
posure. The last days of his life were devoted exclusively to 
such preparations for his departure that the welfare of his peo- 
ple might be undisturbed. He ordered a general act of am- 
nesty to be proclaimed to all the prisoners throughout all 
the empire, abolished sevei'al onerous taxes, restored several 
confiscated estates to their original owners, and urged his son, 
Feodor, who was to be his successor, to make every possible 
endeavor to live at peace with his neighbors, that Russia 
might thus be saved from the woes of war. Exhausted by a 
long interview with his son, he took a bath ; on coming out 
he reclined upon a couch, and suddenly, without a struggle or 
a groan, was dead. 

Ivan IV. has ever been regarded as one of the most illus- 
trious of the Russian monarchs. He was eminently a learned 
prince for the times in which he lived, entertaining uncom- 



STORMS OF HEREDITAET SUCCESSION 269 

monly just views both of religion and politics. In religion he 
was tolerant far above his age, allowing no Christians to be 
persecuted for their belief. We regret that this high praise 
must be limited by his treatment of the Jews, whom he could 
not endure. With conscientiousness, unenlightened and big- 
oted, he declared that those who had betrayed and crucified 
the Saviour of the world ought not to be tolerated by any 
Christian prince. He accordingly ordered every Jew either 
to be baptized into the Christian faith or to depart from the 
empire. 

Ivan was naturally of a very hasty temper, which was nur 
tured by the cruel and shameful neglect of his early years. 
Though he struggled against this infirmity, it would occasion- 
ally break out in paroxysms which caused bitter repentance. 
The death of his son, caused by one of these outbreaks, was 
the great woe of his life. Still he was distinguished for his 
love of justice. At stated times the aggrieved of every rank 
were admitted to his presence, where they in person presented 
their petitions. If any minister or governor was found guilty 
of oppression, he was sure to meet with condign punishment. 
This impartiality, from which no noble was exempted, at times 
exasperated greatly the haughty aristocracy. He was also 
inflexible in his determination to confer office only upon those 
who were worthy of the trust. No solicitations or views of 
self-interest could induce him to swerve from this resolve. 
Intemperance he especially abominated, and frowned upon 
the degrading vice alike in prince or peasant. He conferred 
an inestimable favor upon Russia by causing a compilation, for 
the use of his subjects, of a body of laws, which was called 
" The Book of Justice." This code was presented to the 
judges, and was regarded as authority in all law proceedings. 

The historians of those days record that his memory was 
so remarkable that he could call all the officers of his army by 
name, and could even remember the name of every prisoner 
he had taken, numbering many thousands. In those days of 



270 THE EMPIKE OP KUSSIA. 

dim enliglitenment, when the masses were little elevated above 
the animal, the popular mind was more easily impressed by 
material than intellectual grandeur. It was then deemed ne- 
cessary, among the unenlightened nations of Europe, to over- 
awe the multitude by the splendor of the throne — by scepters, 
robes and diadems glittering with priceless jewels and with 
gold. The crown regalia of Russia were inestimably rich. 
The robe of the monarch was of purple, embroidered with 
precious stones, and even his shoes sparkled with diamonds of 
dazzling luster. 

When he sat upon his throne to receive foreign embassa- 
dors, or the members of his own court, he held in his right 
hand a globe, the emblem of universal monarchy, enriched 
with all the jeweled splendor which art could entwine around 
it. In his left hand he held a scepter, which also dazzled the 
eye by its superb embellishments. His fingers were laden with 
the most precious gems the Indies could afford. Whenever 
he appeared in public, the arms of the empire, finely embroi- 
dered upon a spread eagle, and magnificently adorned, were 
borne as a banner before him ; and the masses of the people 
bowed before their monarch, thus arrayed, as though he were 
a god. 

Ivan lY. left two sons, Feodor and Dmitri. Feodor, who 
succeeded his father, was twenty years of age, weak, charac- 
terless, though quite amiable. In his early youth his chief 
pleasure seemed to consist in ringing the bells of Moscow, 
which led his father, at one time, to say that he was fitter 
to be the son of a sexton than of a prince. Dmitri was an 
infant. He was placed, by his father's will, under the tutelage 
of an energetic, ambitious noble, by the name of Bogdan Biel- 
ski. This aspiring nobleman, conscious of the incapacity of 
Feodor to govern, laid his plans to obtain the throne for him- 
self. 

Feodor was crowned immediately after the death of his 
father, and proceeded at once to carry out the provisions of 



STORMS OF HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 2)1 

his will by liberating the prisoners, abolishing the taxes and 
restoring confiscated estates. He also abolished the body 
guard of the tzar, which had become peculiarly obnoxious to 
the nation. Tnese measures rendered him, for a time, very 
popular. This popularity thwarted Bielski in the plan of 
organizing the people and the nobles in a conspiracy against 
the young monarch, and the nobles even became so much 
alarmed by the proceedings of the haughty minister, who was 
60 evidently aiming at the usurpation of the throne, that they 
besieged him in his castle. The fortress was strong, and the 
powerful feudal lord, rallying his vassals around him, made a 
valiant and a protracted defense. At length, finding that he 
would be compelled to surrender, he attempted to escape in 
disguise. Being taken a captive, he was offered his choice, 
death, or the renunciation of all political influence and de- 
parture into exile. He chose the latter, and retired beyond 
the Volga to one of the most remote provinces of Kezan. 

Feodor had married the daughter of one of the most il- 
lustrious of his nobles. His father-in-law, a man of peculiar 
address and capacity, with ability both to conceive and exe- 
cute the greatest undertakings, soon attained supremacy over 
the mind of the feeble monarch. The name of this noble, 
who became renowned in Russian annals, was Boris Gudenow 
He had the rare faculty of winning the favor of all whom he 
approached. With rapid strides he attained the posts of 
prime minister, commander-in-chief and co-regent of the em- 
pire. A Polish embassador at this time visited Moscow, and, 
witnessing the extreme feebleness of Feodor, sent word to 
his ambitious master, Stephen Bathori, that nothing would 
be easier than to invade Russia successfully ; that Smolensk 
could easily be taken, and that thence the Polish army might 
find an almost unobstructed march to Moscow. But death 
soon removed the Polish monarch from the labyrinths of war 
and diplomacy. 

Boris was now virtually the monarch of Russia, reigning, 



272 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

however, in the Dame of Feodor. We have before mentioned 
that Poland was an elective monarchy. Immediately upon 
the death of a sovereign, the nobles, with their bands of 
retainers, often eighty thousand in number, met upon a large 
plain, where they spent many days in intrigues and finally in 
the election of a new chieftain. Boris Gudenow now roused 
all his energies in the endeavor to unite Poland and Russia 
under one monarchy by the election ot Feodor as sovereign 
of the latter kingdom. The Polish nobles, proud and self- 
confident, and apprised of the incapacity of Feodor, were 
many of them in favor of the plan, as Boris had adroitly inti- 
mated to them that they might regard the measure rather as 
the annexing Russia to Poland than Poland to Russia. All 
that Boris cared for was the fact accomplished. He was will- 
ing that the agents of his schemes should be influenced by 
any motives which might be most efticacious. 

The Polish diet met in a stormy session, and finally, a ma- 
jority of its members, instead of voting for Feodor, elected 
Prince Sigismond, a son of John, King of Sweden. This 
election greatly alarmed Russia, as it allied Poland and Swe- 
den by the most intimate ties, and might eventually place 
the crown of both of those powerful kingdoms upon the 
same brow. These apprehensions were increased by the fact 
that the Crimean Tartars soon again began to make hostile 
demonstrations, and it was feared that they were moving only 
in accordance with suggestions which had been sent to them 
from Poland and Sweden, and that thus a triple alliance was 
about to desolate the empire. The Tartars commenced their 
march. But Boris met them with such energy that they were 
driven back in utter discomfiture. 

The nothern portion of Asia consisted of a vast, desolate 
thinly-peopled country called Siberia. It was bounded by the 
Caucasian and Altai mountains on the south, the Ural moun- 
tains on the west, the Pacific Ocean on the east, and the Froz- 
en Ocean on the north. Most of the region was within the 



STORMS OF HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 273 

limits of the frozen zone, and the most southern sections were 
coJd and inhospitable, enjoying but a gleam of summer sun- 
shine. This country, embracing over fOur millions of square 
miles, being thus larger than the whole of Europe, contained 
but about two millions of inhabitants. It was watered by 
some of the most majestic rivers on the globe, the Oby, 
Enisei and the Lena. The population consisted mostly of 
wandering Mohammedan Tartars, in a very low state of 
civilization. At that time there were but two important 
towns in this region, Tura and Tobolsk. Some of the barba- 
rians of this region descended to the shores of the Volga, in 
a desolating, predatory excursion. A Russian army drove 
them back, pursued them to their homes, took both of these 
towns, erected fortresses, and gradually brought the whole 
of Siberia under Russian sway. This great conquest was 
achieved almost without bloodshed. 

Boris Gudenow now exercised all the functions of sover- 
eign authority. His energy had enriched Russia with the 
accession of Siberia. He now resolved to lay aside the feeble 
prince Feodor, who nominally occupied the throne, and to 
place the crown upon his own brow. It seemed to him an 
easy thing to appropriate the emblems of power, since he 
already enjoyed all the prerogatives of royalty. Under the 
pretense of rewarding, with important posts of trust, the 
most efficient of the nobles, he removed all those whose in- 
fluence he had most to dread, to distant provinces and 
foreign embassies. He then endeavored, by many favors, 
to win the affections of the populace of Moscow. 

The young prince Dmitri had now attained his ninth 
year, and was residing, under the care of his tutors, at the 
city of Uglitz, about two hundred miles from Moscow. Ug- 
litz, with its dependencies, had been assigned to him for his 
appanage. Gudenow deemed it essential, to his secure oc- 
cupancy of the throne, that this young prince should be put 
out of the way. He accordingly employed a Russian officer. 

12* 



274 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

by the promise of immense rewards, to assassinate the child 
And then, the deed having been performed, to prevent the 
possibility of his agency in it being divulged, he caused 
another low-born murderer to track the path of the officer 
and plunge a dagger into his bosom. Both murders were 
puccessfuily accomplished. 

The news of the assassination of the young prince soon 
reached Moscow, and caused intense excitement. Gudenow 
was by many suspected, though he endeavored to stifle the 
report by clamorous expressions of horror and indignation, 
and by apparently making the most strenuous efforts to 
discover the murderers. As an expression of his rage, he 
sent troops to demolish the fortress of Uglitz, and to drive 
the inhabitants from the city, because they had, as he as- 
serted, harbored the assassins. Soon after this Feodor was 
suddenly taken ill. He lingered upon his bed for a few days 
in great pain, and then died. When the king was lying upon 
this dying bed, Boris Gudenow, who, it will be recollected, 
was the father of the wife of Feodor, succeeded in obtaining 
from him a sort of bequest of the throne, and immediately 
upon the death of the king, he assumed the state of royalty 
as a duty enjoined upon him by this bequest. The death of 
Feodor terminated the reign of the house of Ruric, which 
had now governed Russia for more than seven hundred years. 

Not a little artifice was still requisite to quell the indig- 
nant passions which were rising in the bosoms of the nobles. 
But Gudenow was a consummate master of his art, and through 
the intrigues of years had the programme of operations all 
arranged. According to custom, six weeks were devoted to 
mourning for Feodor. Boris then assembled the nobility and 
principal citizens of Moscow, in the Kremlin, and, to the un- 
utterable surprise of many of them, declared that he could 
not consent to assume the weighty cares and infinite respon- 
sibilities of royalty ; that the empire was unfortunately left 
without a sovereign, and that they must proceed to designate 



STORMS OF HEKEDITAEY SUCCESSION. 275 

tho one to whom the crown should be transferred; that he, 
worn down with the toils of State, had decided to retire to a 
monastery, and devote the remainder of his days to poverty, 
retirement and to God. He immediately took leave of the 
astonished and perplexed assembly, and withdrew to a con- 
vent about three miles from Moscow. 

The partisans of Boris were prepared to act their part. 
They stated that intelligence had arrived that the Tartars, 
with an immense army, had commenced the invasion of Rus- 
sia ; that Boris alone was familiar with the condition and re- 
sources of the empire, and with the details of administration 
— that he was a veteran soldier, and that his military genius 
and vigorous arm were requisite to beat back the foe. These 
considerations were influential, and a deputation was chosen 
to urge Boris, as he loved his country, to continue in power 
and accept the scepter, which, as prime minister, he had so 
long successfully wielded. Boris affected the most extreme 
reluctance. The populace of Moscow, whose favor he had 
])urchased, surrounded the convent in crowds, and with ve- 
hemence, characteristic of their impulsive, childish natures, 
threw themselves upon the ground, tore their hair, beat their 
breasts, and declared that they would never return to their 
homes unless Boris would consent to be their sovereign. 

Pretending, at last, to be overcome by these entreaties, 
Boris consented to raise and lead an army to repel the Tar- 
tars, and he promised that should Providence prosper him in 
this enterprise, he w^ould regard it as an indication that it 
was the will of Heaven that he should ascend the throne. 
He immediately called all his tremendous energies into exer- 
cise, and in a few months collected an army, of the nobles 
and of the militia, amounting to five hundred thousand men. 
With great pomp he rode through the ranks of this mighty 
host, receiving their enthusiastic applause. In that day, as 
neither telegraphs, newspapers or stage-coaches existed, i:i- 
telligence was transmitted with difficulty, and ve^y slowly. 



276 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

The story of the Tartar invasion proved a sham. Boiis had 
originated it to accomplish his purposes. He amused and 
conciliated the soldiers with magnificent parades, intimating 
that the Tartars, alarmed by his vast prepai-ations, had not 
dared to advance against him. A year's pay was ordered for 
each one of the soldiers. The nobles received gratuities and 
were entertained by the tzar in festivals, at which parties of 
ten thousand, day after day, were feasted, during an inter- 
val of six weeks. Boris then returned to Moscow. The peo- 
ple met him several miles from the city, and conducted him 
in triumph to the Kremlin. He was crowned, with great 
pomp. Emperor of Russia, on the 1st of September, 1517. 

Boris watched, with an eagle eye, all those who could by 
any possibility disturb his reign or endanger the permanence 
of the new dynasty which he wished to establish. Some of 
the princes of the old royal family were forbidden to many ; 
others were banished to Siberia. The diadem, thus usurped, 
proved indeed a crown of thorns. That which is founded in 
crime, can generally by crime alone be perpetuated. The 
manners of the usurper were soon entirely altered. He had 
been affable, easy of access, and very popular. But now 
he became haughty, reserved and suspicious. Wishing to 
strengthen his dynasty by royal alliances, he proposed the 
marriage of his daughter to Gustavus, son of Erie XIV., King 
of Sweden. He accordingly invited Gustavus to Moscow, 
making him pompous promises. The young prince was re- 
ceived with magnificent display and loaded with presents. 
But there was soon a falling out between Boris and his in- 
tended son-in-law, and the young prince was dismissed in 
disgrace. He however succeeded in establishing a treaty of 
peace with the Poles, which was to continue twenty years 
He also was successful in contracting an alliance for his daugh- 
ter Axinia, with Duke John of Denmark. The marriage was 
celebrated in Moscow in 1602 with great splendor. But even 
before the marriage festivities were closed, the duke was 



STOEMS OF HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 2/7 

taken sick and died, to the inexpressible disappointment of 
Boris. 

The Turks from Constantinople sent an embassy to Mos- 
cow with rich presents, proposing a treaty of friendship and 
alliance. But Boris declined the presents and dismissed the 
embassadors, saying that he could never be friendly to the 
Turks, as they were the enemies of Christianity. Like many 
other men, he could trample upon the precepts of the gospel, 
and yet be zealous of Christianity as a doctrinal code or an 
institution. 

A report 'was now circulated that the young Dmitri was 
still alive, that his mother, conscious of the danger of his 
assassination, had placed the prince in a position of safety, and 
that another child had been assassinated in his stead. This 
rumor overwhelmed the guilty soul of Boris with melancholy. 
His fears were so strongly excited, that several nobles, who 
were supposed to be in the interests of the young prince, 
were put to the rack to extort a confession. But no positive 
information respecting Dmitri could be gained. The mother 
of Dmitri was banished to an obscure fortress six hundred 
miles from Moscow. 

The emissaries of Boris were everywhere busy to detect, 
if possible, the hiding place of Dmitri. Intelligence was at 
length brought to the Kremlin that two monks had escaped 
from a convent and had fled to Poland, and that it was appre- 
hended that one of them was the young prince in disguise ; 
it was also said that Weisnowiski, prince of Kief, was pro- 
tector of Dmitri, and, in concert with others, was preparing 
a movement to place him upon the throne of his ancestors. 
Boris was thrown into paroxysms of terror. Not knowing 
what else to do, he franticly sent a party of Cossacks to mur- 
der Weisnowiski ; but the prince was on his guard, and the 
enterprise failed. 

The question, " Have we a Bourbon among us ?" has agi- 
tated the whole of the United States. The question, " Have 



278 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

we a Dmitri among us ?" then agitated Russia far more 
intensely. It was a question of the utmost practical impor- 
tance, involving civil war and the removal of the new dynasty 
for the restoration of the old. Whether the person said to be 
Dmitri were really such, is a question which can now nevei 
be settled. The monk Griska Utropeja, who declared him- 
self to be the young prince, sustained his claim with such an 
array of evidence as to secure the support of a large portion 
of the Russians, and also the cooperation of the court of 
Poland. The claims of Griska were brought up before the 
Polish diet and carefully examined. He was then acknowl- ^ 
edged by them as the legitimate heii' to the crown of Russia. 
An army was raised to restore him to his ancestral throne. 
Sigismond, the King of Poland, with ardor espoused his 
cause. 

Boris immediately dispatched an embassy to Warsaw to 
remind Sigismond of the treaty of alliance into which he had 
entered, and to insist upon his delivering up the pretended 
Dmitri, dead or alive. A threat was added to the entreaty : 
" If you countenance this impostor," said Boris, " you will 
draw down upon you a war which you may have cause to 
repent." 

Sigismond replied, that though he had no doubt that 
Griska was truly the Prince Dmitri, and, as such, entitled to 
the throne of Russia, still he had no disposition personally to 
embark in the advocacy of his rights ; but, that if any of hi* 
nobles felt disposed to espouse his claims with arms or money, 
he certainly should do nothing to thwart them. The Polish 
nobles, thus encouraged, raised an army of forty thousand 
men, which they surrendered to Griska. He, assuming the 
name of Dmitri, placed himself at their head, and boldly 
commenced a march upon Moscow. As soon as he entered 
the Russian territories many nobles hastened to his banners, 
and several important cities declared for him. 

Boris was excessively alarmed. With characteristic ener- 



STORMS OF HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 279 

gy he speedily raised an army of two hundred thousand men, 
and then was in the utmost terror lest this very army should 
pass over to the ranks of his foes. He applied to Sweden and 
to Denmark to help him, but both kingdoms refused. Dmitri 
advanced triumphantly, and laid siege to Novgorod on the 
21st of December, 1605. For live months the war continued 
with varying success. Boris made every attempt to secure 
the assassination of Griska, but the wary chieftain was on his 
guard, and all such endeavors were frustrated. Griska at 
length decided to resort to the same weapons. An officer 
was sent to the Kremlin with a feigned account of a victory 
obtained over the troops of Dmitri. This officer succeeded 
in mingling poison with the food of Boris. The drug was so 
deadly that the usurper dropped and expired almost without 
a struggle and without a groan. 

As soon as Boris was dead, his widow, a woman of great 
ambition and energy, lost not an hour in proclaiming the suc- 
cession of her son, Feodor. The officers of the army were 
promptly summoned to take the oath of allegiance to the 
new sovereign. Feodor was but fifteen years of age, a 
thoroughly spoilt boy, proud, domineering, selfish and cruel. 
There was now a revolt in the army of the late tzar. Several 
of the officers embraced the cause of Griska, declaring their 
full conviction that he was the Prince Dmitri, and they carried 
over to his ranks a large body of the soldiers. 

The defection of the army caused great consternation at 
court. The courtiers, eager to secure the favor of the prince 
whose star was so evidently in the ascendant, at once aban- 
doned the hapless Feodor and his enraged mother ; and the 
halls of the Kremlin and the streets of Moscow were soon 
resounding with the name of Dmitri. A proclamation was 
published declaring general amnesty, and rich rewards to 
all who should recognize and support the rights of their le- 
gitimate prince, but that his opponents must expect no mercy. 
The populace immediately rose in revolt against Feodor. 



280 THE EMriEE OF RUSSIA. 

They assailed the Kremlin. In a resistless inundation they 
forced its gates, seized the young tzar, with his mother, 
sister and other relatives, and hurried them all to prison. 

Dmitri was at Thula when he received intelligence of this 
revolution. He immediately sent an officer, Basiiius Galitzan, 
to Moscow to receive the oath of fidelity of the city, and, at 
the same time, he diabolically sent an assassin, one Ivan Bog- 
danoff, with orders to strangle Feodor and his mother in the 
prison, but with directions not to hurt his sister. Bogdanoif 
reluctantly executed his mission. On the 15th of July, 1605, 
Dmitri made his triumphal entry into Moscow. He was re- 
ceived with all the noisy demonstrations of public rejoicing, 
and, on the 29th of July, was crowned, with extraordinary 
grandeur. Emperor of all the Russias. 

,The ceremonies of the triumphal entrance are perhaps 
worthy of record. A detachment of Polish horse in brilliant 
uniform led the procession, headed by a numerous band of 
trumpeters. Then came the gorgeous coach of Dmitri, 
empty, drawn by six horses, lichly caparisoned, and preceded, 
followed and flanked by dense columns of musqueteers. Next 
came a procession of the clergy in their ecclesiastical robes, 
and with the banners of the church. This procession was led 
by the bishops, who bore effigies of the Virgin Mary and of 
St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Russia. Following the clergy 
appeared Dmitri, mounted on a white charger, and surround- 
ed by a splendid retinue. Pie proceeded first to the church 
of Notre Dame, where a Te Deum was chanted, and where 
the new monarch received the sacrament. He then visited 
the tomb of Ivan IV., and kneeling upon it, as the tomb of 
his father, implored God's blessing. Perceiving that the body 
of Boris Gudenow had received interment in the royal ceme- 
tery, he ordered his remains, with those of his wife and son, 
all three of whom Dmitri had caused to be assassinated, to be 
removed to a common churchyard without the city. 

Either to si'ence those who might doubt his legitimacy 



STORMS OF HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 281 

or being truly the son of Ivan IV., he sent two of the nobles, 
with a brilliant retinue, to the convent, more than six hundred 
miles from Moscow, to which Boris had banished the widow 
of Ivan. They were to conduct the queen dowager to the 
capital. As she approached the city, Dmitri went out to re- 
ceive her, accompanied by a great number of his nobles. As 
soon as he perceived her coach, he alighted, went on foot to 
meet his alleged mother, and threw himself into her arms 
with every demonstration of joy and affection, which em- 
braces she returned with equal tenderness. Then, with his 
head uncovered, and walking by the side of her carriage, he 
conducted her to the city and to the Kremlin. He ever after 
treated her with the deference due to a mother, and received 
from her corresponding proofs of confidence and affection. 

But Dmitri was thoroughly a bad man, and every day 
became more unpopular. He debauched the young sister of 
Feodor, and then shut her up in a convent. He banished 
seventy noble families who were accused of being the friends 
of Boris, and gave their estates and dignities to his Polish 
partisans. A party was soon organized against him, who 
busily circulated reports that he was an impostor, and a con- 
spiracy was formed to take his life. Perplexities and perils 
now gathered rapidly around his throne. He surrounded 
himself with Polish guards, and thus increased the exaspera- 
tion of his subjects. 

To add to his perplexities, another claimant of the crown 
appeared, who declared himself to be the son of the late tzar, 
Feodor, son of Ivan lY. This young man, named Peter, was 
seventeen years of age. He had raised his standard on the 
other side of the Volga, and had rallied four thousand parti- 
sans around him. In the meantime, Dmitri had made ar- 
rangements for his marriage with Mariana Meneiski, a Polish 
princess, of the Roman church. This princess was married 
to the tzar by proxy, in Cracow, and in January, 1606, with 
a numerous retinue set out on her journey to Moscow. She 



282 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

did not reach the capital of Moscow until the 1st of May. 
Her father's whole family, and several thousand armed Poland- 
ers, by way of guard, accompanied her. Many of the Polish 
nobles also took this opportunity of visiting Russia, and a 
multitude of merchants put themselves in her train for pur- 
poses of traffic. 

The tzarina was met, at some distance from Moscow, by 
the royal guard, and escorted to the city, where she was re- 
ceived with ringing of bells, shoutings, discharge of cannons 
and all the ordinary and extraordinary demonstrations of pop- 
ular joy. On the 8th of May, the ceremony of blessing the 
marriage was performed by the patriarch, and immediately 
after she was crowned tzarina with greater pomp than Russia 
had ever witnessed before. But the appearance of this im- 
mense train of armed Poles incensed the Russians ; and the 
clergy, who were jealous of the encroachments of the church 
of Rome, were alarmed in behalf of their religion. An in- 
trepid noble, Zuski, now resolved, by the energies of a popu- 
lar insurrection, to rid the throne of Dmitri. With great 
sagacity and energy the conspiracy was formed. The tzarina 
was to give a grand entertainment on the evening of the 17th 
of May, and the conspirators fixed upon that occasion for the 
consummation of their plan. Twenty thousand troops were 
under the orders of Zuski, and he had led them all into the 
city, under the pretense of having them assist in the festival. 

At six o'clock in the morning of the appointed day these 
troops, accompanied by some thousands of the populace, sur- 
rounded the palace and seized its gates. A division was then 
sent in, who commenced the indiscriminate massacre of all 
who were, or who looked like Polanders. It was taken for 
granted that all in the palace were either Poles or their parti- 
sans. The alarm bells were now rung, and Zuski traversed 
the streets with a drawn saber in one hand and a cross in the 
other, rousing the ignorant populace by the cry that the Poles 
had taken up arms to murder the Russians. Dmitri, in his 



STORMS OP HEEEDITAEY SUCCESSION. 283 

chamber, hearing the cries of the dying and the shiieks of 
those who fled before the assassins, leaped from his window 
into the court yard, and, by his fall, dislocated his thigh. He 
was immediately seized, conveyed into the grand hall of au- 
dience, and a strong guard was set over him. 

The murderers ransacked the palace, penetrating every 
room, killing every Polish man and treating the Polish ladies 
with the utmost brutality. They inquired eagerly for the 
tzarina, but she was nowhere to be found. She had concealed 
herself beneath the hoop of an elderly lady whose gray hairs 
and withered cheek had preserved her from violence. Zuski 
now w^ent to the dowager tzarina, the widow of Ivan lY., and 
demanded that she should take her oath upon the Gospels 
whether Dmitri were her son. He reported that, thus pressed, 
she confessed that he was an impostor, and that her true son 
had perished many years before. The conspirators now fell 
upon Dmitri and his body was pierced with a thousand dag- 
ger thrusts. His mangled remains were then dragged through 
the streets and burned. Mariana was soon after arrested and 
sent to prison. It is said that nearly two thousand Poles 
perished in this massacre. 

Even to the present day opinion is divided in Russia in 
regard to Dmitri, w^hether he was an impostor or the son of 
Ivan IV. Respecting his character there is no dispute. All 
that can be said in his favor is that he would not commit an 
atrocious crime unless impelled to it by very strong tempta- 
tion. There was now no one who seemed to have any legiti- 
mate title to the throne of Russia. 

The nobles and the senators who were at Moscow then 
met to proceed to the election of a new sovereign. It was an 
event almost without a parallel in Russian history. The lords, 
though very friendly in their deliberations, found it diflicult 
to decide into whose hands to intrust the scepter. It was at 
last unanimously concluded to make an appeal to the people. 
Their voice was for Zuski. He was accordingly declared tzar 



284 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

and was soon aflei* crowned with a degree of unanimity which, 
thougi well authenticated, seems inexplicable. 

The Poles were exasperated beyond measure at the mas- 
sacre of so many of their nobles and at the insult offered to 
Mariana, the tzarina. But Poland was at that time distracted 
by civil strife, and the king found it expedient to postpone the 
hour of vengeance. Zuski commenced his reign by adopting 
measures which gave him great popularity with the adjoining 
kingdoms, while they did not diminish the favorable regards 
of the people. But suddenly affairs assumed a new aspect, so 
strange that a writer of fiction would hardly have ventured to 
imagine it. An artful man, a schoolmaster in Poland, who 
could speak the Russian language, declared that he was 
Dmitri ; that he had escaped from the massacre in his palace, 
and that it was another man, mistaken for him, whom the 
assassins had killed. Poland, inspired by revenge, eagerly 
embraced this man's cause. Mariana, who had been liberated 
from prison, was let into the secret, and willing to ascend 
again to the grandeur from which she had fallen, entered with 
cordial cooperation into this new intrigue. The widowed 
tzarina and the Polish adventurer contrived their first meet- 
ing in the presence of a large concourse of nobles and citizens. 
They rushed together in a warm embrace, while tears of 
affected transport bedewed their cheeks. The farce was so 
admirably performed that many were deceived, and this new 
Dmitri and the tzarina occupied for several days the same 
tent in the Polisl encampment, apparently as husband and 
wife. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 

From 1608 to 1680. 

CONQTTESTS BY PoLAND. — SWEDBN IN ALLIANCE WITH RuSSIA. — GkANDEUR OF PoLAND. 

— Ladislaits Elected King of Eussia. — Commotions and Insukrections. — Eejec* 

TION OF LaDISLAUS AND ELECTION OF MiCIIAEL FeODOR RoMANOW. — SORROW OP 

His Mother. — Pacific Character of Eomanow. — Choice of a Bride. — Eudochia 
Streschnew. — The Archbishop Feodor. — Death of Michael and Accession of 
Alexis. — Love in the Palace. — Successful Intrigue. — Mobs in Moscow. — 
Change in the Character of the Tzar. — Turkish Invasions. — Alliance Be- 
tween Russia and Poland. 

^PHIS public testimonial of conjugal love led men, who had 
-•*- before doubted the pretender, to repose confidence in his 
claims. The King of Poland took advantage of the confusion 
now reigning in Russia to extend his dominions by wresting 
still more border territory from his great rival. In this exi- 
gence, Zuski purchased the loan of an army of five thousand 
men from Sweden by surrendering Livonia to the Swedes. 
With these succors united to his own troops, he marched to 
meet the pretended Dmitri. There was now universal con- 
fusion in Russia. The two hostile armies, avoiding a decisive 
engagement, were maneuvering and engaging in incessant 
petty skirmishes, which resulted only in bloodshed and mis- 
ery. Thus five years of national woe lingered away. The 
people became weary of both the claimants for the crown, and 
the nobles boldly met, regardless of the rival combatants, and 
resolved to choose a new sovereign. 

Poland had then attained the summit of its greatness. 
As an energetic military power, it was superior to Russia. 
To conciliate Poland, whose aggressions were greatly feared, 
the Russian nobles chose, for their sovereign, Ladislaus, sou 



280 THE EMPIRE OF KUSSIA. 

of Sigismond, the King of Poland. They hoped thus to with- 
draw the Polish armies from the banners of the pretended 
Dmitri, and also to secure peace for their war-blasted king- 
dom. 

Ladislaus accepted the crown. Zuski was seized, deposed, 
shaved, dressed in a friar's robe and shut up in a convent to 
count his beads. He soon died of that malignant poison, 
grief. Dmitri made a show of opposition, but he was soon 
assassinated by his own men, who were convinced of the 
hopelessness of his cause. His party, however, lasted for 
many years, bringing forward a young man who was called 
his son. At one time there was quite an enthusiasm in his 
favor, crowds flocked to his camp, and he even sent embassa- 
dors to Gustavus IX., King of Sweden, proposing an alliance. 
At last he was betrayed by some of his own party, and was 
sent to Moscow, where he was hanged. 

Sigismond was much perplexed in deciding whether to 
consent to his son's accepting the crown of Russia. That 
kinofdom was now in such a state of confusion and weakness 
that he was quite sanguine that he would be able to conquer 
it by force of arms and bring the whole empire under the 
dominion of his own scepter. His armies were already be- 
sieging Smolensk, and the city was hourly expected to fall 
into their hands. This would open to them almost an unob- 
structed march to Moscow. The Poles, generally warlike 
and ambitious of conquest, represented to Sigismond that it 
would be far more glorious for him to be the conqueror of 
Russia than to be merely the father of its tzar. 

Sigismond, with trivial excuses, detained his son in Poland, 
while, under various pretexts, he continued to pour his troops 
into Russia. Ten thousand armed Poles were sent to Moscow 
to be in readiness to receive the newly-elected monarch upoji 
his arrival. Their general, Stanislaus, artfully contrived even 
to place a thousand of these Polish troops in garrison in the 
citadel of Moscow. These foreign soldiers at last became so 



A CHANCE O V 1) V N A S T Y . 287 

iiiaf)l(Mit that there was :i gcnoral rising of the populace, and 
thoywero tlireatened witli ulter extermination. Tlie storm 
of passion thus raised, no earthly power could (piell. The 
awful slaughter was eonnneneed, and the Poles, conscious of 
their danger, resorted to tlu' lu)rril)le but only measure which 
could save them from destruction, Tliey imuKHliately set 
lire to the city in many different places. Tlio city then con- 
sisted of one hundred and eighty thousand houses, most of 
them being of wood. As the ihunes rose, sweeping from house 
to house and from street to street, the inhabitants, disti'acted 
by the endeavor to save their wives, their children and their 
property, threw down their arms and dispersed. When tinis 
helpless, the Poles fell u[)on them, and one of the most awful 
massacres ensued of which history gives any record. A liun- 
dred thousand of the wretched people of Moscow perished 
beneath the Polish cimeters. For lifleen days the depopu- 
lated and smouldering capital was surrendered to pillage. 
The royal treasury, the churches, the convents were all 
plundered. The Poles, then, laden with booty, but leaving a 
garrison in the citadel, evacuated the ruined city and com- 
menced their march to Poland. 

These horrors roused the Russians. An army under a 
heroic general, Zachary Lippenow, besieged the l*olish garri- 
son, starved them into a surrender, and put them all to death. 
The nobles then met, declared the election of Ladislaus void, 
on account of his not coming to Moscow to accept it, and 
again proceeded to the choice of a sovereign. After long 
deliberation, one miui ventured to propose a candidate very 
different from any who had before been thought of. It was 
Michael Feodor Uomanow. lie was a studious, philosophic 
young man, seventeen years of age. Ilia father was arch- 
bishop of Ivostow, a man of exMltcd rej)utati()n, both for 
genius and i)iety. Michael, with his mother, was in a con- 
vent at Castrouja. It was modestly urgcul that in this youiK'- 
man there wore centered all the qualifications (issential ibr the 



288 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

promotion of the tranquillity of the State. There were but 
three males of his family living, and thus the State would 
avoid the evil of having numerous relatives of the prince to 
be cared for. He was entirely free from embroilments in the 
late troubles. As his father was a clergyman of known piety 
and virtue, he would counsel his son to peace, and would con- 
scientiously seek the best good of the empire. 

The proposition, sustained by such views, was accepted 
with general acclaim. Tliere were several nobles from Cas- 
troma who testified that though they were not personally 
acquainted with young Romano w, they believed him to be a 
youth of unusual intelligence, discretion and moral worth. 
As the nobles were anxious not to act hastily in a matter of 
such great importance, they dispatched two of their number 
to Castroma with a letter to the mother of Michael, urging 
her to repair immediately with her son to Moscow. 

The affectionate, judicious mother, upon the reception of 
this letter, burst into tears of anguish, lamenting the calamity 
which was impending. 

" My son," she said, " my only son is to be taken frou) 
me to be placed upon the throne, only to be miserably 
slaughtered like so many of the tzars who have preceded 
him." 

She wrote to the electors entreating them that her son 
might be excused, saying that he was altogether too young to 
reign, that his father was a prisoner in Poland, and that her 
son had no relations capable of assisting him with their advice. 
This letter, on the whole, did but confirm the assembly of 
nobles in their conviction that they could not make a better 
choice than that of the young Komanow. They accordingly, 
with great unanimity, elected Michael Feodor Roraanow, 
sovereign of all the Russias ; then, repairing in a body to the 
cathedral, they proclaimed him to the people as their sover- 
eign. The announcement was received with rapturous ap- 
plause. It was thus that the liouse of Romanow was placed 



A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 289 

upon the throne of Russia. It retains the throne to the pres- 
ent day. 

Michael, incited by singular sagacity and by true Christian 
philanthropy, commenced his reign by the most efficient mea- 
sures to secure the peace of the empire. As soon as he had 
notified his election to the King of Poland, his father, arch- 
bishop of Rostow, was set at liberty and sent home. He was 
immediately created by his son patriarch of all Russia, an 
office in the Greek church almost equivalent to that of the 
pope in the Romish hierarchy. While these scenes were 
transpiring, Charles IX. died, and Gustavus Adolphus suc- 
ceeded to the throne of Sweden. Gustavus and Michael both 
desired peace, the preliminaries were soon settled, and peace 
was established upon a basis far more advantageous to the 
Swedes than to the Russians. By this treaty, Russia ceded 
to Sweden territory, which deprived Russia of all access to 
the Baltic Sea. Thus the only point now upon which Russia 
touched the ocean, was on the North Sea. No enemies re- 
mained to Russia but the Poles. Here there was trouble 
enough. Ladislaus still demanded the throne, and invaded 
the empire with an immense army. He advanced, ravaging 
the country, even to the gates of Moscow. But, finding that 
he had no partisans in the kingdom, and that powerful armies 
were combining against him, he consented to a truce for four- 
teen year's. 

Russia was now at peace with all the world. The young 
tzar, aided by the counsels of his excellent father, devoted 
himself with untiring energy to the promotion of the pros- 
perity of his subjects. It was deemed a matter of much 
political importance that the tzar should be immediately mar- 
ried. According to the custom of the empire, all the most 
beautiful girls were collected for the monarch to make his 
choice. They were received in the palace, and were lodged 
separately though they all dined together. The tzar saw 
them, either incognito or without disguise, as suited his plea- 

13 



290 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

sure. The day for the nuptials was appointed, and the bridal 
robes prepared when no one knew upon whom the monarch's 
choice had been fixed. On the morning of the nuptial day th^ 
robes were presented to the empress elect, who then, for the 
first time, learned that she had proved the successful^ can? 
didate. The rejected maidens were returned to their homes 
laden with rich presents. 

The young lady selected, was Eudocia Streschnew, who 
chanced to be the daughter of a very worthy gentleman, in 
quite straitened circumstances, residing nearly two hundred 
miles from Moscow. The messenger who was sent to inform 
him that his daughter was Empress of Russia, found him in 
the field at work with his domestics. The good old man was 
\X)n ducted to Moscow ; but he soon grew weary of the splen- 
\iOYS of the court, and entreated permission to return again to 
his humble rural home. Eudocia, reared in virtuous retire- 
ment, proved as lovely in character as she was beautiful in 
^rson, and she soon won the love of the nation. The first 
year of her marriage, she gave birth to a daughter. The 
three next children proved also daughters, to the great dis- 
appointment of their parents. But in the year 1630, a son 
was born, and not only the court, but all Russia, was filled 
with rejoicing. In the year 1634, the tzar met with one of 
the greatest of afflictions in the loss of his father by death. 
His reverence for the venerable patriarch Feodor, had been 
such that he was ever his principal counselor, ^nd all his 
public acts were proclaimed in the name of the tzar and his 
majesty's father, the most holy patriarch. 

"As he had joined," writes an ancient historian, "the 
miter to the sword, having been a general in the army before 
he was an ecclesiastic, the afiable and modest behaviour, so 
becoming the ministers of the altar, had tempered and cor- 
rected the fire of the warrior, and rendered his manners 
amiable to all that came near him." 

The reign of Michael proved almost a constant success. 



A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 291 

His wisdom and probity caused him to be respected by the 

neighboring States, while the empire, in the enjoyment of 

peace, was rapidly developing all its resources, and increasing 

in wealth, population and power. His court was constantly 

tilled with embassadors from all the monarchies of Europe and 

even of Asia. The tzar, rightly considering peace as almost 

the choicest of all earthly blessings, resisted all temptations to 

draw the sword. There were a few trivial interruptions of 

peace during his reign; but the dark clouds of war, by his 

energies, were soon dispelled. This pacific pi-ince, one of the 

most worthy who ever sat upon any throne, died revered by 

his subjects on the 12th of July, 1645, in the forty-ninth year 

of his age and the thirty-third of his reign. He left but two 

children— a son, Alexis, who succeeded him, and a daughter, 

Irene, who a few years after died unmarried. 

Alexis was but sixteen years of age when he succeeded to 
the throne. To prevent the possibility of any cabals being 
formed, in consequence of his youth, he was crowned the day 
after his father's death. In one week from that time Eudocia 
also died, her death being hastened by grief for the loss of her 
husband. An ambitious noble, Moroson, supremely selfish, 
but cool, calculating and persevering, attained the post ot' 
prime minister or counselor of the young tzar. The great 
object of his aim was to make himself the first subject in the 
empire. In the accomplishment of this object there were two 
leading measures to which he resorted. The first was to keep 
the young tzar as much as possible from taking any part in 
the transactions of state, by involving him in an incessant 
round of pleasures. The next step was to secure for the tzar 
a wife who would be under his own influence. The love of 
pleasure incident to youth rendered the first measure not 
difticult of accomplishment. Peculiar circumstances seemed 
remarkably to favor the second measure. There was a noble- 
man of high rank but of small fortune, strongly attached 
to Moroson, who had two daughters of marvelous beauty. 



292 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Moroson doubted not that be could lead his ardent young 
monarch to marry one of tbese lovely sisters, and he re- 
solved himself to marry the other. He would thus become 
the brother-in-law of the emperor. Through his wife he 
would be able to influence her sister, the empress. The fam- 
ily would also all feel that they were indebted to him for their 
elevation. The plan was triumphantly successful. 

The two young ladies were invited to court, and were dec- 
orated to make the most impressive display of their loveli- 
ness. With the young tzar, a boy of sixteen, it was love at 
first sight, and that very day he told Moroson that he wished 
to marry Maria, the eldest of the beauties. Rich presents 
were immediately lavished upon the whole family, so that 
they could make their appearance at court with suitable 
splendor. The tzar and Maria were immediately betrothed, 
and in just eight days the ardent lover led his bride from the 
altar. At the end of another week Morosun married the 
other sister. Moroson and Miloslouski, the father of the two 
brides, now ruled Russia, while the tzar surrendered himself 
to amusements. 

The people soon became exasperated by the haughtiness 
and insolence of the duumvirate, and murmurs growing deep- 
er and louder, ere long led to an insurrection. On the 6th of 
July, 1648, the tzar, engaged in some civic celebration, was 
escorted in a procession to one of the monasteries of Moscow. 
The populace assembled in immense numbers to see him pass. 
On his return the crowd broke through the attendant guards, 
seized the bridle of his horse, and entreated him to listen to 
their complaints concerning the outrages perpetrated by his 
ministers. The tzar, much alarmed by their violence, listened 
impatiently to their complaints and promised to render them 
satisfaction. The people were appeased, and were quietly 
retiring when the partisans of the ministers rode among them, 
assailing them with abusive language, crowding them with 
their horses, and even striking at them with their whipsi 



A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 293 

The populace, incensed, began to pelt them ^vith stones, and 
though the guard of the tzar came to their rescue, they 
escaped with difficulty to the palace. The mob was now 
thoroughly aroused. They rushed to the palace of Moroson, 
burst down the doors, and sacked every apartment. They 
even tore from the person of his wife her jewels, throwing 
them into the street, but in other respects treating her with 
civility. They then passed to the palace of Miloslauski, treat- 
ing it in the same manner. The mob had now possession of 
Moscow. Palace after palace of the partisans of tiie ministers 
was sacked, and several of the most distinguished members 
of the court were massacred. 

The tzar, entirely deficient in energy, remained trembling 
in the Kremlin during the whole of the night of the 6th of 
July, only entreating his friends to strengthen the guaj'ds 
and to secure the palace from the outrages of the populace. 
Afraid to trust the Russian troops, who might be found in 
sympathy with the people, Alexis sent for a regiment of Ger- 
man troops who were in his employ, and stationed them 
around the palace. He then sent out an officer to disperse 
the crowd, assuring them that the disorders of which they 
complained should be redressed. They demanded that the 
offisnding ministers should be delivered to them, to be pun- 
ished for the injuries they had inflicted upon the empire. 
Alexis assured them, through his messenger, upon his oath, 
that Moroson and Miloslauski had escaped, but promised that 
the third minister whom they demanded, a noble by the name 
of Plesseon, who was judge of the supreme court of judica- 
ture of Moscow, should be brought out directly, and that 
those who had escaped should be delivered up as soon as they 
could be arrested. The guilty, wretched man, thus doomed 
to be the victim to appease the rage of the mob, in a quarter 
of an hour was led out bareheaded by the servants of the 
tzar to the market-place. The mob fell upon him with clubs, 
beat him to the earth, dragged him over the pavements, and 



294 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA.. 

finally cut off his head. Thus satiated, about eleven o'clock 
in the morning they dispersed and returned to their homes. 

In the afternoon, however, the reign of violence was re- 
sumed. The city was set on fire in several places, and the 
Diob collected for plunder, making no effort to extinguish the 
flames. The fire spread with such alarming rapidity that the 
whole city was endangered. At length, however, after ter- 
rible desti*uction of property and the loss of many lives, tlie 
fury of the conflagration w^as arrested. The affrighted tzar 
now filled the important posts of the ministry with men who 
had a reputation for justice, and the clergy immediately es- 
pousing the cause of order, exhorted the populace to that 
respect and obedience to the higher powers which their re- 
ligion enjoined. Alexis personally appeared before the peo 
pie and addressed them in a speech, in which he made no 
apology for the outrages which had been committed by the 
government, but, assuming that the people were right in their 
demands, promised to repeal the onerous duties, to abolish 
the obnoxious monopolies, and even to increase the privileges 
which they had formeily enjo\ ed. The people received this 
announcement with great applause. The tzar, taking advan- 
tage of this retuni to friendliness, remarked, 

" I have promised to deliver up to you Moroson and his 
confederates in the government. Their acts I admit to have 
been very unjust, but their personal relations to me renders 
it peculiarly trying for me to condemn them. I hope the 
people will not deny the first request I have ever made to 
them, which is, that these men, whom I have displaced, may 
be pardoned. I wdll answer for them for the future, and as- 
sure you that their conduct shall be such as to give you cause 
to rejoice at your lenity." 

The people were so moved by this address, which the tzar 
pronounced with tears, that, as with one accord, they shouted, 
" God grant his majesty a long and happy life. The will of 
God auvl of the tzar be done." Peace was thus restored be- 



ACHANGE OF DYNASTY. 295 

tween the government and the people, and great good ac- 
crued to Russia from this successful insurrection. 

During the early reign of Alexis, there were no foreign 
wars of any note. The Poles were all the time busy in en- 
deavors to beat back the Turks, who, in wave after wave of 
invasion, were crossing the Danube. Upon the death of Lad- 
islaus. King of Poland, Alexis, who had then a fine army at 
his command, offered to march to repel the Turks, if the 
Poles would choose him King of Poland. But at the same 
time France made a still more alluring offer, in case they 
would choose John Casimir, a prince in the interests of France, 
as their sovereign. The choice fell upon John Casimir. The 
provinces of Smolensk, Kiof and Tchernigov were then in 
possession of the Poles, having been, in former wars, wrested 
from Russia. The Poles had conquered them by taking ad- 
vantage of internal troubles in Russia, w^iich enabled them 
with success to invade the empire. 

Alexis now thought it right, in his turn, to take advantage 
of the weakness of Poland, harassed by the Turks, to recover 
these lost provinces. He accordingly marched to the city of 
Smolensk, and encamped before it with an army of three 
hundred thousand men. Smolensk was one of the strongest 
places which military art had then been able to rear. The 
Poles had received sufficient warning of the attack to enable 
them to garrison the fortifications to their utmost capacity 
and to supply the town abundantly with all the materials of 
war. The siege was continued for a full year, with all the 
usual accompaniments of carnage and misery which attend a 
beleaguered fortress. At last the city, battered into ruins, sur- 
rendered, and the victorious Russians immediately swept over 
Lithuanian Poland, meeting no force to obstruct its march. 
Another army, equally resistless, swept the banks of the Dnie- 
per, and recovered Tchernigov and Kiof. 

Misfortunes seemed now to be foiling like an avalanche 
upon Poland. While the Turks were assailing them on the 



296 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

south, and the Russians were wresting from them opulent and 
populous provinces on the north, Charles Gustavus of Sweden, 
was crossuTg her eastern frontiers with invading hosts. The 
impetuous Swedish king, in three months, overran nearly the 
whole of Poland, threatening the utter extinction of the king- 
dom. This alarmed the surroundino; kingdoms, lest Sweden 
should become too powerful for their safety. Alexis im- 
mediately entered into a truce with Poland, which guaran- 
teed to him the peaceable possession of the provmces he had 
regained, and then united his armies with those of his humili- 
ated rival, to arrest the strides of the Swedish conqueror. 

Sieges, cannonades and battles innumerable ensued, over 
hundreds of leagues of territory, bordering the shores of the 
Baltic. For several years the maddened strife continued, 
producing its usual fruits of gory fields, smouldering cities, 
desolated homes, with orphanage, widowhood, starvation, 
pestilence, and every conceivable form of human misery. At 
length, all parties being exhausted, peace was concluded on 
the 2d of June, 1661. 

The great insurrection in Moscow had taught the tzar 
Alexis a good lesson, and he profited by it wisely. He was 
led to devote himself earnestly to the welfare of his people. 
His recovery of the lost provinces of Russia was considered 
just, and added immeasurably to his renown. Conscious of 
the imperfection of his education, he engaged earnestly in 
study, causing many important scientific treatises to be trans- 
lated into the Russian language, and perusing them with dili- 
gence and delight. He had the laws of the several provinces 
collected and published together. Many new manufactures 
were introduced, particularly those of silk and linen. Though 
rigidly economical in his expenses, he maintained a magnifi- 
cent court and a numerous army. He took great interest in 
the promotion of agriculture, bringing many desert wastes 
into cultivation, and peopling them with the prisoners taken 
in the Polish and Swedish wars. It was the custom in those 



A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 297 

barbaric times to drive, as captives of war, the men, women 
and children of whole provinces, to be slaves in the territory 
of the conqueror. Often they occupied the position of a vas- 
sal peasantry, tilling the soil for the benefit of their lords. 
With singular foresight, Alexis planned for the construction 
of a fleet both on the Caspian and the Black Sea. With this 
object in view, he sent for ship carpenters from Holland and 
other places. 

All Europe was now trembling in view of the encroach- 
ments of the Turks. Several very angry messages had passed 
between the sultan and the tzar, and the Turks had proved 
themselves ever eager to combine with the Tartars in bloody 
raids into the southern regions of the empire. Alexis resolved 
to combine Christian Europe, if possible, in a war of extermi- 
nation against the Turks. To this end he sent embassadors 
to every court in Christendom. As his embassador was pre- 
sented to Pope Clement X., the pope extended his foot for 
the customary kiss. The proud Russian drew back, exclaim- 
ing, 

" So ignoble an act of homage is beneath the dignity of 
the prince whom I have the honor to serve." 

He then informed the pope that the Emperor of Russia 
liad resolved to make war against the Turks, that he wished 
to see all Christian princes unite against those enemies of 
humanity and religion, that for that purpose he had sent 
embassadors to all the potentates of Europe, and that he 
exhorted his holiness to place himself at the head of a league 
so powerful, so necessary for the protection of the church, and 
from which every Christian State might derive the greatest 
advantages. Foolish punctilios of etiquette interfered with 
any efiicient arrangements with the court of Rome, and 
though the embassadors of other powers were received with 
the most marked respect, these powers were all too much 
engrossed with their own internal affairs to enlist in this enter- 
prise for the public good. The Turks were, however, alarmed 

13* 



298 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSI-.*.. 

by these formidable moveraents, aiid, fearing such an alliance, 
were somewhat checked in their career of conquest. 

On the 10th of November, 1674, the King of Poland died, 
and again there was an attemjDt on the pai-t of Russia to unite 
Poland and the empire under the same crown. All the mon- 
archies in Europe were involved in intrigues for the Polish 
crown. The electors, however, chose John Sobieski, a re- 
nowned Polish general, for their sovereign. The tzar was 
very apprehensive that the Poles would make peace with the 
Turks, and thus leave the sultan at liberty to concentrate all 
his tremendous resources upon Russia. Alexis raised three 
large armies, amounting in all to one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand men, which he sent into the Ukraine, as the frontier 
country, watered by the lower Dnieper, was then called. 

The Turkish army, which was spread over the country 
between the Danube and the Dniester, now crossed this latter 
stream, and, in solid battalions, four hundred thousand strong, 
penetrated the Ukraine. They immediately commenced the 
fiend-like work of reducing the whole province to a desert. 
The process of destruction is swift. Flames, in a few hours, 
will consume a city which centuries alone have reared. A 
squadron of cavalry will, in a few moments, trample fields 
of grain which have been slowly growing and ripening for 
months. In less than a fortnight nearly the whole of the 
Ukraine was a depopulated waste, the troops of the tzar being 
shut up in narrow fortresses. The King of Poland, apprehen- 
sive that this vast Turkish army would soon turn with all 
their energies of destruction upon his own territories, resolved 
to march, with all the forces of his kingdom, to the aid of the 
Russians. One hundred thousand Polish troops immediately 
besieged the great city of Human, which the Turks had 
taken, midway between the Dnieper and the Dniester. 

John Sobieski, the newly-elected King of Poland, was a 
veteran soldier of great military renown. Replaced himself at 
the head of other divisions of the army, and endeavored to 



A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 299 

distract the enemy and to divide their forcjes. At the same 
time, Alexis himself hastened to the theater of war that he 
might animate his troops by his presence. The Turks, find- 
ing themselves unable to advance any further, sullenly re- 
turned to their own country by the way of the Danube. 
Upon the retirement of the Turks, the Russians and the Poles 
began to quarrel respecting the possession of the Ukraine, 
Affairs were in this condition when the tzar Alexis, in all the 
vigor of manhood, was taken sick and died. He was then in 
the forty-sixth year of his age. His first wife, Maria Milos- 
louski, had died several years before him, leaving two sons 
and four daughters. His second wife, Natalia Nariskin, to 
whom he was married in the year 1671, still lived with her 
two children, a son, Peter, who was subsequently entitled 
the Great, as being the most illustrious monarch Russia has 
known, and a daughter Natalia. 

Alexis, notwithstanding the unpropitious promise of his 
youth, proved one of the wisest and best princes Russia had 
known for years. He was a lover of peace, and yet prosecuted 
war with energy when it was forced upon him. His oldest 
surviving son, Feodor, who was but eighteen years of age at 
the time of his father's death, succeeded to the crown. Feodor, 
following the counsel which his father gave him on his dying 
bed, soon took military possession of nearly all of the Ukraine. 
The Turks entered the country again, but were repulsed with 
severe loss. Apprehensive that they would speedily return, 
the tzar made great efforts to secure a friendly alliance with 
Poland, in which he succeeded by paying a large sum of 
money in requital for the provinces of Smolensk and Kiof 
which his arms had recovered. 

In the spring of 1678, the Turks again entered the Ukra- 
ine with a still more formidable army than the year before. 
The campaign was opened by laying siege to the city Czehe- 
rin, which was encompassed by nearly four hundred thousand 
men, and, after a destructive cannonade, was carried by storm. 



300 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

The garrison, consisting of thirty thousand men, were put to 
the sword. The Russian troops were so panic-stricken by this 
defeat, that they speedily retreated. The Turks pursued them 
a long distance, constantly harassing their rear. But the 
Turks, in their turn, were compelled to retire, being driven 
back by famine, a foe against whom their weapons could make 
no impression. 

The Ottoman Porte soon found that little was gained by 
waging war with an empire so vast and sparsely settled as 
Russia, and that their conquest of the desolated and depopu- 
lated lands of the Ukraine, was by no means worth the ex- 
penses of the war. The Porte was therefore inclined to make 
peace with Russia, that the Turkish armies might fall upon 
Poland again, which presented a much more inviting field of 
conquest. The Poles were informed of this through their 
embassador at Constantinople, and earnestly appealed to the 
tzar of Russia, and to all the princes in Christendom to come 
to their aid. The selfishness which every court manifested is 
humiliating to human nature. Each court seemed only to 
think of its own aggrandizement. Feodor consented to aid 
them only on condition that the Poles should renounce all 
pretension to any places then in possession of Russia. To 
this the Polish king assented, and the armies of Russia and 
Poland were again combined to repel the Turks. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

USE REaENCT OE SOPHIA. 

From 1680 to 1697. 

Administeation of Fkodok. — Death of Feobor. — Incapacity of Ivan. — Succession 
OF Peter. — Usurpation of Sophia. — Insurrection of the Strelitzes. — Massacre 
IN Moscow. — Success op the Insurrection. — Ivan and Peter Declared SoV' 

EREIGNS UNDER THE EeGENCY OF SOPIIIA. — GENERAL DISCONTENT. — CONSPIRACT 

AGAINST Sophia. — Her FLifiiiT to the Convent. — The Conspiracy Quelled. — 
New Conspiracy. — Energy of Peter. — He Assumes the Crown. — Sophia Ban- 
ished TO a Convent. — Commencement of the Eeign of Peter. 

FEODOR, influenced by the wise counsels of his father, 
devoted much attention to the beautifying of his capital, 
and to developing the internal resources of the empire. He 
paved the streets of Moscow, erected several large buildings 
of stone in place of the old wooden structures. Commerce 
and arts were patronized, he even loaning, from the public 
treasury, sums of money to enterprising men to encourage 
them in their industrial enterprises. Foreigners of distinction, 
both scholars and artisans, were invited to take up their resi- 
dence in the empire. The tzar was particularly fond of fine 
horses, and was very successful in improving, by importations, 
the breed in Russia. 

Feodor had always been of an exceedingly frail constitu- 
tion, and it was evident that he could not anticipate long life. 
In the year 1681 he married a daughter of one of the nobles. 
His biide, Opimia Routoski, was also frail in health, though 
very beautiful. Six months had hardly })assed away ere 
the youthful empress exchanged her bridal robes and couch 
for the shroud and the tomb. The emperor himself, grief- 
stricken, was rapidly sinking in a decline. His ministers almost ^ 



302 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

forced him to another immediate marriage, hoping that, by the 
birth of a son, the succession of his half brother Peter might 
be prevented. The dying emperor received into his emaciate, 
feeble arms the new bride who had been selected for him, Marva 
Matweowna, and after a few weeks of languor and depression 
died. He was deeply lamented by his subjects, for during his 
short reign of less than three years he had developed a noble 
character, and had accomplished more for the real prosperity 
of Russia than many a monarch in the longest occupation of 
the throne. ^ 

Feodor left two brothers — Ivan, a brother by the same 
mother, Eudocia, and Peter, the son of the second wife of 
Alexis. Ivan was very feeble in body and in mind, with dim 
vision, and subject to epileptic fits. Feodor consequently 
declared his younger brother Peter, who was but ten years 
of age, his successor. The custom of the empire allowed him 
to do this, and rendered tliis appointment valid. It was gene- 
rally the doom of the daughters of the Russian emperors, who 
could seldom find a match equal to their rank, to pass their 
lives immured in a convent. 

Feodor had a sister, Sophia, a very spirited, energetic 
woman, ambitious and resolute, whose whole soul revolted 
against such a moping existence. Seeing that Feodor had but 
a short time to live, she left her convent and returned to the 
Kremlin, persisting in her resolve to perform all sisterly duties 
for her dying brother. Ivan, her own brother, was incapable 
of reigning, from his infirmities. Peter, her half-brother, was 
but a child. Sophia, with wondei-ful energy, while tending at I 
the couch of Feodor, made herself familiar with the details of 
the administration, and, acting on behalf of the dying sove- 
reign, gathered the reins of power into her own hands. 

As soon as Feodor expired, and it was announced that 
Peter was appointed successor to the throne, to the exclusion 
of his elder brother Ivan, Sophia, through her emissaries, 
excited the militia of the capital to one of the most blood)' 



THE REGEXCY OF SOTHIA. 303 

revolts Moscow had ever witnessed. It was her intention to 
gain the throne for the imbecile Ivan, as she doubted not that 
she could, in that event, govern the empire at her pleasure. 
Peter, cliild as he was, had already developed a character of 
self-reliance which taught Sophia that he would speedily wrest 
the scepter from her hands. 

The second day after the burial of Feodor, the militia, or 
strelitzes as they were called, a bodv of citizen soldiers in 
Moscow, corresponding very much with the national guard of 
Paris, surrounded tlae Kremlin, in a great tumult, and com- 
menced complaining of nine of their colonels, who owed them 
some arrears of pay. They demanded that these officers 
should be surrendered to them, and their demand was so 
threatening that the court, intimidated, was compelled to 
vield. The wretched officers were seized bv the mob, tied to 
the ground naked, upon their faces, and whipped with most 
terrible severity. The soldiers thus overawed opposition, and 
became a power which no one dared resist. Sophia was their 
inspiring genius, inciting and directing them thi'ough her 
emissaries. Though some have denied her complicity in 
these deeds of violence, still the prevailing voice of history-- 
is altos:ether ao-ainst her. 

Sophia, having the terrors of the mob to wield, as her ex- 
ecutive power, convened an assembly of the princes of the 
blood, the generals, the lords, the patriarch and the bishop.** 
of the church, and even of the principal merchants. She 
urged upon them that Ivan, by right of birth, "was entitled to 
the empire. The mother of Peter, Natalia Xariskin, now 
empress dowager, was still young and beautiful. She had 
two brothers occupying posts of influence at court. The 
fimily of the Nariskins had consequently much authority in 
the empire. Sophia dreaded the power of her mother-in-law, 
and her first efforts of intrigue were directed against the 
Xariskins. Her agents were everywhere busy, in the court 
and in the army, whispering insinuations against them. It 



304 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

was even intimated that they had caused the death of Feodor, 
by bribing his physician to poison him, and that they had 
attempted the life of Ivan. At length Sophia gave to her 
agents a list of forty lords whom they were to denounce to 
the insurgent soldiery as enemies to them and to the State. 

This was the signal for their massacre. Two were first 
seized in the palace of the Kremlin, and thrown out of the 
window. The soldiers received them upon their pikes, and 
dragged their mutilated corpses through the streets to the 
great square of the city. They then rushed back to the 
palace, where they found Athanasius Nariskin, one of the 
brothers of the queen dowager. He was immediately mur- 
dered. They soon after found three of the proscribed in a 
church, to which they had fled as a sanctuary. Notwith- 
standing the sacredness of the church, the unhappy lords 
were instantly hewn to pieces by the swords of the assassins. 
Thus frenzied with blood, they met a young lord whom they 
mistook for Ivan Nariskin, the remaining brother of the moth- 
er of Peter. He was instantly slain, and then the assassins 
discovered their error. With some slight sense of justice, 
perhaps of humanity, they carried the bleeding corpse of the 
young nobleman to his father. The panic-stricken, heart- 
broken parent dared not rebuke them for the murder, but 
thanked them for bringing to him the corpse of his child. 
The mother, more impulsive and less cautious, broke out into 
bitter and almost delirious reproaches. The father, to apj^ease 
her, said to her, in an under tone, " Let us wait till the hour 
shall come when we shall be able to take revenge." 

Some one overheard the imprudent words, and reported 
them to the mob. They immediately returned, dragged the 
old man down the stairs of his palace by the hair, and cut his 
throat upon his own door sill. They were now searching the 
city, in all directions, for Von Gaden the German physician 
of the 'late tzar, who was accused of administering to him 
poison. Tliey met in the streets, the son of the physician, 



THE KEGENCY OF SOPHIA. 305 

and demanded of him where his father was. The tremhling 
lad replied that he did not know. They cut him down. Soon 
they met another German physician. 

" You are a doctor," they said. " If you have not poi- 
soned our sovereign you have poisoned others, and deserve 
death." 

He was immediately murdered. At length they discov- 
ered Yon Gaden. He had attempted to disguise himself in 
a beggar's garb. The worthy old man, who, like most emi- 
nent physicians, was as distinguished for humanity as for 
eminent medical skill, was dragged to the Kremlin. The 
princesses themselves came out and naingled with the crowd, 
begging for the life of the good man, assuring them that he 
had been a faithful physician and that he had served their 
sovereign with zeal. The soldiers declared that he deserved 
to die, as they had positive proof that he was a sorcerer, for, 
in searching his apartments, they had found the skin of a 
snake and several reptiles preserved in bottles. Against such 
proof no earthly testimony could avail. 

They also demanded that Ivan Nariskin, whom they had 
been seeking for two days, should be delivered up to them. 
They were sure that he was concealed somewhere in the 
Kremlin, and they threatened to set fire to the palace and 
burn it to the ground unless he were immediately delivered 
to them. It was evident that these threats would be promptly 
put into execution. Firing the palace would certainly insure 
his death. There was the bare possibility of escape by sur- 
rendering him to the mob. The empress herself went to her 
brother in his concealment and informed him of the direful 
choice before him. The young prince sent for the patriarch, 
confessed his sins, partook of the Lord's Supper, received the 
sacrament of extreme unction in i3reparation for death, and 
was then led out, by the patriarch himself, dressed in his pon- 
tifical robes and bearing an image of the Yirgin Mary, and 
was delivered by him to the soldiers. The queen and the 



306 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

princesses accompanied the victim, surrounding him, ana, falh 
ing upon their knees before the soldiers, they united with the 
patriarch in pleading for his life. But the mob, intoxicated 
and maddened, dragged the young prince and the physician 
before a tribunal which they had constituted on the spot, and 
condemned them to what was expressively called the punish- 
ment of " ten thousand slices." Their bodies were speedily 
cut into the smallest fragments, while their heads were stuck 
upon the iron spikes of the balustrade. 

These outrages were terminated by a proclamation from 
the soldiery that Ivan and Peter should be joint sovereigns 
under the regency of Sophia. The regent rewarded her par- 
tisans liberally for their efficient and successful measures. 
Upon the leaders she conferred the confiscated estates of the 
proscribed. A monument of shame was reared, upon which 
the names of the assassinated were engraved as traitors to 
their coimtry. The soldiers were rewarded with double pay. 

Sopliia unscrupulously usurped all the prerogatives and 
honors of royalty. All dispatches were sealed with her hand. 
Her effigy was stamped upon the current coin. She took her 
seat as presiding officer at the council. To'confer a little more 
dignity upon the character of her imbecile brother, Ivan, she 
selected for him a wife, a young lady of extraordinary beauty 
whose father had command of a fortress in Siberia. It was on 
the 25th of June, 1682, that Sophia assumed the regency. In 
1684 Ivan was married. The scenes of violence which had 
occurred agitated the whole political atmosphere throughout 
the empire. There was intense exasperation, and many con- 
spiracies were formed for the overthrow of the government. 
The most formidable of these conspiracies was organized by 
Couvanski, commander-in-chief of the strelitzes. He was dis- 
satisfied with the rewards he had received, and, conscious 
that he had placed Sophia upon the throne through the ener- 
gies of the soldiers he commanded, he believed that he might 
just as easily have placed himself there. Having become 



THE EEGEXCY OF SOPHIA. 307 

accustomed to blood, the slaughter of a few more persons, 
that he might place the crown upon his own brow, appeared 
to him a matter of but little moment. He accordingly planned 
to murder the two tzars, the regent Sophia and all the remain- 
ing princes of the royal family. Then, by lavishing abundant re- 
wards upon the soldiers, he doubted not that he could secure 
their efficient cooperation in maintaining him on the throne. 

The conspiracy was discovered upon the eve of its accom- 
plishment. Sophia immediately fled with the two tzars and 
the princes, to the monastery of the Trinity. This was a 
palace, a convent and a fortress. The vast pile, reared of 
stone, was situated thirty-six miles from Moscow, and was 
encompassed with deep ditches, and massive ramparts brist- 
ling with cannon. The monks were in possession of the 
whole country for a space of twelve miles around this almost 
impregnable citadel. From this safe retreat Sophia opened 
communications with the rebel chief. She succeeded in al- 
luring him to come half way to meet her in conference. A 
powerful band of soldiers, placed in ambush, seized him. He 
was immediately beheaded, with one of his sons, and thirty- 
seven strelilzes who had accompanied him. 

As soon as the strelitzes in Moscow, numbering many 
thousands, heard of the assassination of their general and of 
their comrades, they flew to arms, and in solid battalions, 
with infantry, artillery and cavaliy, marched to the assault of 
the convent. The regent rallied her supporters, consisting of 
the lords who were her partisans, and their vassals, and pre- 
pared for a vigorous defense. Russia seemed now upon the 
eve of a bloody civil war. The nobles generally espoused 
the cause of the tzars under the regency of Sophia. Their 
claims seemed those of legitimacy, while the success of the 
insurrectionary soldiers promised only anarchy. The rise of 
the people in defense of the government was so sudden and 
simultaneous, that the strelitzes were panic-stricken, and soon, 
in the most abject submission, implored pardon, which was 



308 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

wisely granted tliera. Sophia, with the tzars, surrounded by 
an army, returned in triumph to Moscow. TranquilUty was 
thus restored. 

Sophia still held the reins of power with a firm grasp. 
The imbecility of Ivan and the youth of Peter rendered this 
usurpation easy. Very adroitly she sent the most mutinous 
regiments of the strelitzes on apparently honorable missions 
to the distant provinces of the Ukraine, Kesan, and Siberia. 
Poland, menaced by the Turks, made peace with Russia, and 
purchased her alliance by the surrender of the vast province 
of Smolensk and all the conquered territory in the Ukraine. 
In the year 1687, Sophia sent the first Russian embassy to 
France, which was then in the meridian of her splendor, 
under the reign of Louis XIV. Voltaire states that France, 
at that time, was so unacquainted with Russia, that the 
Academy of Inscriptions celebrated this embassy by a meda!, 
as if it had come from India.* The Crimean Tartars, in con- 
federacy with the Turks, kept Russia, Poland, Hungary, 
Transylvania, and the various provinces of the German em- 
pire in perpetual alarm. Poland and Russia were so hu- 
miliated, that for several years they had purchased exemp- 
tion from these barbaric forays by paying the Tartars an 
annual tribute amounting to fifty thousand dollars each. 
Sophia, anxious to wipe out this disgrace, renewed the effort, 
which had so often failed, to unite all Europe against the 
Turks. Immense armies were raised by Russia and Poland 
and sent to the Tauride. For two years a bloody war raged 
with about equal slaughter upon both sides, while neither 
party gained any marked advantage. 

Peter had now attained his eighteenth year, and began to 
manifest pretty decisively a will of his own. He fell in love 

* " La France n'avait eu encore aucune correspondance avec la Russia ; on 
ne le connaissait pas ; at rAcadcmie des Inscriptions celebra par una medaille 
cette ambassada, comma si elle iut venue des Indes." — Histoire de V Empire de 
Russie, sous Pierre le Grand, page 93. 



THE REGENCY OF SOPHIA. 309 

with a beautiful maiden, Ottokesa Lapuchin, daughter of one 
of bis nobles, and, notwithstanding all the intriguing opposi 
tion of Sophia, persisted in marrying her. This marriage in- 
creased greatly the popularity of the young prince, and it 
was very manifest that he would soon thrust Sophia aside, 
and with his own vigorous arm, wield the scepter alone. 

The regent, whose hands were already stained with the 
blood of assassination, now resolved to remove Peter out of 
the way. The young prince, with his bride, was residing at 
his country seat, a few miles out from Moscow. Sophia, in 
that corrupt, barbaric age, found no difficulty in obtaining, 
with bribes, as many accomplices as she wanted. Two dis- 
tinguished generals led a party of six hundred strelitzes out 
of the city, to surround the palace of Peter and to secure his 
death. The soldiers had already commenced their march, 
when Peter was informed of his danger. The tzar leaped 
upon a horse, and spurring him to his utmost speed, accom- 
panied by a few attendants, escaped to the convent of the 
Trinity, to which we have before alluded as one of the 
strongest fortresses of Russia. The mother, wife and sister 
of the tzar, immediately joined him there. 

The soldiers were not aware of the mission which their 
leaders were intending to accomplish. When they arrived at 
the palace, and it was found that the tzar had fled, and it was 
whispered about that he had fled to save his life, the soldiers, 
by nature more strongly attached to a chivalrous young man 
than to an intriguing, ambitious woman, whose character was 
of very doubtful reputation, broke out into open revolt, and, 
abandoning their officers, marched directly to the monastery 
and offered their services to Peter. The patriarch, whose re- 
liijious character o:ave him almost unbounded influence with 
the people, also found that he was included as one of the vic- 
tims of the conspiracy ; that he was to have been assassinated, 
and his place conferred upon one of the partisans of Sophia. 
He also fled to the convent of the Trinity. 



810 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Sophia now found herself deserted by the soldiery and the 
nation. She accordingly, with the most solemn protestations, 
declared that she had been accused falsely, and after sending 
messenger after messenger to plead her cause with her brother, 
resolved to go herself. She had not advanced more than half 
way, ere she was met by a detachment of Peter's friends who 
informed her, from him, that she must go directly back to 
Moscow, as she could not be received into the convent. The 
next day Peter assembled a council, and it was resolved to 
bring the traitors to justice. A colonel, vrith three hundred 
men, was sent to the Kremlin to arrest the officers implicated 
in the conspiracy. They were loaded with chains, conducted 
to the Trinity, and in accordance with the barbaric custom of 
the times were put to the torture. In agony too dreadful to 
be borne, they of course made any confession which was de- 
manded. 

Peter was reluctant to make a public example of his sister. 
There ensued a series of punishments of the conspirators too 
revolting to be narrated. The mildest of these punishments 
was exile to Siberia, there, in the extremest penury, to linger 
through scenes of woe so long as God should prolong their 
lives. The executions being terminated and the exiles out of 
sight, Sophia was ordered to leave the Kremlin, and retire to 
the cloisters of Denitz, which she was never again to leave. 
Peter then made a triumphal entry into Moscow. He was 
accompanied by a guard of eighteen thousand troops. His 
feeble brother Ivan received him at the outer gate of the 
Kremlin. They embraced each other with much affection, and 
then retired to their respective apartments. The wife and 
mother of Peter accompanied him on his return to. Moscow. 

Thus terminated the regency of Sophia. From this time 
Peter was the real sovereign of Russia. His brother Ivan 
took no other share in the government than that of lending 
his name to the public acts. He lived for a few years in great 
seclusion, almost forgotten, and died in 1696. Peter was 



THE EEGENCY OF SOPHIA. 31] 

physically, as well as intellectually, a remarkable man. He 
was tall and finely formed, with noble features lighted up 
with an extremely brilliant eye. His constitution was robust, 
enabling him to undergo gi-eat hardship, and he was, by 
nature, a man of great activity and energy. His education, 
however, was exceedingly defective. The regent Sophia had 
not only exerted all her influence to keep him in ignorance, 
but also to allure him into the wildest excesses of youthful 
indulgence. Even his recent marriage had not interfered 
with the pubhcity of his amours, and all distinguished foreign- 
ers in Moscow were welcomed by him to scenes of feastino- 
and carousing". 

o 

Notwithstanding these deplorable defects of character, for 
which much allowance is to be made from the neglect of his 
education and his peculiar temptations, still it was manifest to 
close observers even then, that the seeds of true greatness 
were implanted in his nature. When five years of age, he 
was riding with his mother in a coach, and was asleep in her 
arras. As they were passing over a bridge where there was a 
heavy fall of water from spring rains, the roar of the cataract 
awoke him. The noise, with the sudden aspect of the rushing 
torrent, created such terror that he was thrown into a fever 
and, for years, he could not see any standing water, much less 
a running stream, without being thrown almost into convul- 
sions. To overcome this weakness, he resolutely persisted in 
plunging into the waves until his aversion was changed into a 
great fondness for that element. 

Ashamed of his ignorance, he vigorously commenced 
studying German, and, notwithstanding all the seductions 
of the court, succeeded in acquiring such a mastery of the 
language as to be able both to speak and write it correctly. 
Peter's father, Alexis, had been anxious to open the fields of 
commerce to his subjects. He had, at great expense, engaged 
the services of ship builders and navigators from Holland. A 
frigate and a yacht had been constructed, with which the 



312 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Volga had been navigated to its mouth at Astrachan. It 
was his intention to open a trade with Persia through the 
Caspian Sea. But, in a revolt at Astrachan, the vessels were 
seized and destroyed, and the captain killed. Thus termin- 
ated this enterprise. The master builder, however, remained 
in Russia, where he lived a long time in obscurity. 

One day, Peter, at one of his summer palaces of Ismaelhof, 
saw upon the shore of the lake the remains of a pleasure boat 
of peculiar construction. He had never before seen any boat 
but such as was propelled by oars. The peculiarity of the 
structure of this arrested his attention, and being informed 
that it was constructed for sails as well as oars, he ordered it 
to be repaired, that he might make trial of it. It so chanced 
that the shipwright, Brandt, from Holland, who had built the 
boat, was found, and the tzar, to his great delight, enjoyed, 
for the first time in his life, the pleasures of a sail. He imme- 
diately gave directions for the boat to be transported to the 
great lake near the convent of the Trinity, and here he or- 
dered two frigates and three yachts to be built. For months 
he amused himself piloting his little fleet over the waves of 
the lake. Like many a plebeian boy, the tzar had now 
acquired a passion for the sea, and he longed to get a sight 
of the ocean. 

With this object in view, in 1694 he set out on a journey 
of nearly a thousand miles to Archangel, on the shores of the 
White Sea. Taking his shipwrights with him, he had a small 
vessel constructed, in which he embarked for the exploration 
of the Frozen Ocean, a body of water which no sovereign had 
seen before him. A Dutch man-of-war, which chanced to be 
in the harbor at Archangel, and all the merchant fleet there 
accompanied the tzar on this expedition. The sovereign him- 
self had already acquired much of the art of working a ship, 
and on this trip devoted all his energies to improvement in 
the science and practical skill of navigation. 

While the tzar was thus turning his attention to the sub- 



THE REGENCY OF SOPHIA. 313 

ject of a navy, he at the same time was adopting measures 
of extraordinary vigor for the reorganization of the army. 
Hitherto the army had been composed of bands of vassals, 
poorly armed and without discipline, led by their lords, who 
were often entirely without experience in the arts of war. 
Peter commenced, at his country residence, with a company 
of fifty picked men, who were put through the most thorough 
drill by General Gordon, a Scotchman of much military abihty, 
who had secured the confidence of the tzar. Some of the sons 
of the lords were chosen as their officers, but these young- 
nobles were all trained by the same military discipline, Peter 
setting them the example by passing through all the degrees 
of the service from the very lowest rank. He shouldered his 
musket, and commencing at the humblest post, served as sen- 
tinel, sergeant and lieutenant. "No one ventured to refuse to 
follow in the footsteps of his sovereign. This company, thus 
formed and disciplined, was rapidly increased until it became 
the royal guard, most terrible on the field of battle. When 
this regiment numbered five thousand men, another regiment 
upon the same principle was organized, which contained 
twelve thousand. It is a remarkable fact stated by Voltaire, 
that one third of these troops were French refugees, driven 
from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

One of the first efforts of the far-sighted monarch was to 
consolidate the army and to bring it under the energy of one 
mind, by breaking down the independence of the nobles, who 
had heretofore acted as petty sovereigns, leading their con- 
tingents of vassals. Peter was thus preparing to make the 
influence of Russia felt among the armies of Europe as it had 
never been felt before. 

The Russian empire, sweeping across Siberian Asia, reached 
down indefinitely to about the latitude of fifty-two degrees, 
where it was met by the Chinese claims. Very naturally, a 
dispute arose respecting the boundaries, and with a degree of 
good sense which seems almost incredible in view of the de- 

14 



314 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

velopments of history, the two half-civilized nations decided 
to settle the question by conference rather than by war. A 
place of meeting, for the embassadors, w^as appointed on the 
frontiers of Siberia, about nine hundred miles from the great 
Chinese wall. Fortunately for both parties, there were some 
Christian missionaries ^vho accompanied the Chinese as inter- 
preters. Probably through the influence of these men of 
peace a treaty was soon formed. Both parties pledged them- 
selves to the observance of the treaty in the following words, 
which were doubtless written by the missionaries : 

" If any of us entertain the least thought of renewing the 
flames of war, we beseech the supreme Lord of all things, 
who knows the heart of man, to punish the traitor with sud- 
den death." 

Two large pillars w^ere erected upon the spot to mark the 
boundaries between the two empires, and the treaty was en- 
graved upon each of them. Soon after, a treaty of commerce 
was formed, w^hich commerce, with brief interruptions, has 
continued to flourish until the present day. Peter now pre- 
pared, with his small but highly disciplined army, to make 
vigorous warfare upon the Turks, and to obtain, if possible, 
the control of the Black Sea. Early in the summer of 1695 
the Russian army commenced its march. Striking the head 
waters of the Don, they descended the valley of that river to 
attack the city of Azov, an important port of the Turks, sit- 
uated on an island at the mouth of the Don. 

The tzar accompanied his troops, not as commander-in- 
chief, but a volunteer soldier. Generals Gordon and Le Fort, 
veteran ofiicers, had the command of the expedition. Azov 
was a very strong fortress and was defended by a numerous 
garrison. It was found necessary to invest the place and 
commence a regular siege. A foreign oflicer from Dantzic, 
by the name of Jacob, had the direction of the battering 
train. For some violation of military etiquette, he had been 
condemned to ignominious punishment. The Russians were 



THE REGENCY OF SOPHIA. 315 

accustomed to such treatment, but Jacob, burning with re- 
venge, spiked his guns, deserted, joined the enemy, adopted 
the Mussulman faith, and with great vigor conducted the de- 
fense. 

Jacob w^as a man of much military science, and he suc- 
ceeded in thwarting all the efforts of the besiegers. In the 
attempt to storm the town the Russians were repulsed with 
great loss, and at length were compelled to raise the siege 
and to retire. But Peter was not a man to yield to diflBcul- 
ties. The next summer he was found before Azov, with a 
still more formidable force. In this attempt the tzar was suc- 
cessful, and on the 28th of July the garrison surrendered 
without obtaining any of the honors of war. Elated with 
success Peter increased the fortifications, dug a harbor capa- 
ble of holding large ships, and prepared to fit out a strong 
fleet against the Turks ; which fleet was to consist of nine 
sixty gun ships, and forty-one of from thirty to fifty guns. 
While the fleet was being built he returned to Moscow, and 
to impress his subjects with a sense of the great victory ob- 
tained, he marched the army into Moscow beneatti triumphal 
arches, while the whole city was surrendered to all the dem- 
onstrations of joy. Characteristically Peter refused to take 
any of the credit of the victory which had been gained by the 
skill and valor of his generals. These officers consequently 
took the precedency of their sovereign in the triumphal pro- 
cession, Peter declaring that merit was the only road to mili- 
tary preferment, and that, as yet, he had attained no rank in 
the army. In imitation of the ancient Romans, the captives 
taken in the war were led in the train of the victors. The 
unfortunate Jacob was carried in a cart, with a rope about 
his neck, and after being broken upon the wheel was igno- 
miniously hung. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

PETER THE GREAT. 

From 1691 to 1'702. 

YoTTNG ErssiAxs Sent to Fokeign Cottnteies. — The Tzar Decides Upon a Toim of 
Observation. — His Plan of Travel. — Anecdote. — Peter's Mode or Life ik 
Holland. — Characteristic Anecdotes. — The Presentation of the Embassador. 
—The Tzar Visits England. — Life at Deptford. — Illustrious Foreigners En- 
gaged IN His Service. — Peter "Visits Vienna. — The Game of Landlord. — Insur- 
rection IN Moscow. — Eeturn of the Tzar, and Measures of Severity.— War 
with Sweden. — Disastrous Defeat of Narva. — ^Efforts to Secure tub Shores 
OF THE Baltic. — Designs Upon the Black Sea. 

IT was a source of mortification to the tzar that he was de- 
pendent upon foreigners for the construction of his ships. 
He accordingly sent sixty young Russians to the sea-ports of 
Venice and Leghorn, in Italy, to acquire the art of ship-build- 
ing, and to learn scientific and practical navigation. Soon 
after this he sent forty more to Holland for the same purpose. 
He sent also a large number of young men to Germany, to 
learn the military discipline of that warlike people. 

He now adopted the extraordinary resolve of traveling 
himself, incognito^ through most of the countries of Europe, 
that he might see how they were governed, and might be- 
come acquainted with the progress they had made in the arts 
and sciences. In this European tour he decided to omit 
Spain, because the arts there were but little cultivated, and 
France, because he disliked the pompous ceremonials of the 
court of Louis XIV. His plan of travel was as ingenuous as 
it was odd. An extraordinary embassage was sent by him, 
as Emperor of Russia, to all the leading courts of Europe. 
These embassadors received minute instructions, and were 
fitted out for their expedition with splendor which should 




<J:^^^/^; 



PETER THE GREAT. 317 

add to the renown of the Russian monarchy. Peter followed 
in the retinue of this embassage as a private gentleman of 
wealth, with the servants suitable for his station. 

Three nobles of the highest dignity were selected as em- 
bassadors. Their retinue consisted of four secretaries, twelve 
gentlemen, two pages for each embassador, and a company of 
tifty of the royal guard. The whole embassage embraced 
two hundred persons. The tzar was lost to view in this 
crowd. He reserved for himself one valet de chambre, one 
servant in livery, and a dwarf. " It was," says Yoltaii-e, " a 
thing unparalleled in history, either ancient or modern, for a 
sovereign, of five and twenty years of age, to withdraw from 
his kingdoms, only to learn the art of government." The 
regency, during his absence, was entrusted to two of the lords 
in whom he reposed confidence, who were to consult, in cases 
of importance, with the rest of the nobility. General Gor- 
don, the Scotch officer, was placed in command of four thou- 
sand of the royal troops, to secure the peace of the capi- 
tal. 

The embassadors commenced their journey in April, 1G97. 
Passing directly west from Moscow to iS^ovgorod, they thence 
traversed the province of Livonia until they reached Riga, 
at the mouth of the Dwina. Peter was anxious to ex- 
amine the important fortifications of this place, but the 
governor peremptorily forbade it, Riga then belonging to 
Sweden. Peter did not forget the affront. Continuing their 
journey, they arrived at Konigsburg, the capital of the feeble 
electorate of Brandenburg, which has since grown into the 
kingdom of Prussia. The elector, an ambitious man, who 
subsequently took the title of king, received them with an 
extravagant display of splendor. At one of the bacchanalian 
feasts, given on the occasion, the bad and good qualities of 
Peter were very conspicuously displayed. Heated with wine, 
and provoked by a remark made by La Fort, who was one of 
his embassadors, he drew his sword and called upon La Fort 



318 THE EMF RE OF RUSSIA. 

to defend himself. The embassador humbly bowed, folded 
his hands upon his breast, and said, 

" Far be it from me. Rather let me perish by the hand 
of my master." The tzar, enraged and intoxicated, raised his 
arm to strike, when one of the retinue seized the uplifted hand 
and averted the blow. Peter immediately recovered his self- 
possession, and sheathing his sword said to his embassador, 

" I ask your pardon. It is my great desire to reform my 
subjects, and yet I am ashamed to confess that I am unable to 
reform myself" 

From Konigsburg they continued their route to Berlin, 
and thence to Hamburg, near the mouth of the Elbe, which 
was, even then, an important maritime town. They then 
turned their steps towards Amsterdam. As soon as they 
reached Emmeric, on the Rhine, the tzar, impatient of the 
slow progress of the embassage, forsook his companions, and 
hiring a small boat, sailed down the Rhine and proceeded to 
Amsterdam, reaching that city fifteen days before the em- 
bassy. " He flew through the city," says one of the annalists 
of those days, " like lightning," and proceeded to a small but 
active sea-port town on the coast, Zaandam. The first person 
they saw here was a man fishing from a small skiff, at a short dis- 
tance from the shore. The tzar, who was dressed like a com- 
mon Dutch skipper, in a red jacket and white linen trowsers, 
hailed the man, and engaged lodgings of him, consisting of 
two small rooms with a loft over them, and an adjoining shed. 
Strangely enough, this man, whose name was Kist, had been 
in Russia working as a smith, and he knew the tzar. He was 
strictly enjoined on no account to let it be known who his 
lodger was. 

A group soon gathered around the strangers, with many 
questions. Peter told them that they were carpenters and 
laborers from a foreign country in search of work. But no 
one believed this, for the attendants of the tzar still wore the 
rich robes which constituted the costume of Russia. With 



PETEE THE GREAT. 319 

sympathy as beautiful as it is rare, Peter called upcn several 
families of ship carpenters who had worked for him and with 
him at Archangel, and to some of these families he gave valu 
able presents, which he said that the tzar of Russia had sent 
to them. He clothed himself, and ordered his companions to 
clothe themselves, in the ordinary dress of the dockyard, and 
purchasing carj^enters' tools they all went vigorously to work 

The next day was the Sabbath. The arrival of these 
strangers, so peculiar in aspect and conduct, was noised 
abroad, and when Peter awoke in the morning he was greatly 
annoyed by finding a large crowd assembled before his door. 
Indeed the rumor of the Russian embassage, and that the tzar 
himself was to accompany it, had already reached Amsterdam, 
and it was shrewdly suspected that these strangers were in 
some way connected with the expected arrival of the embas- 
sadors. One of the barbers in Amsterdam had received from 
a ship carpenter in Archangel a portrait of the tzar, which had 
been for some time hanging ia his shop. He was with the 
crowd around the door. The moment his eye rested upon 
Peter, he exclaimed, w^ith astonishment, " that is the tzar j'" 
His form, features and character were all so marked that he 
could not easily be mistaken. 

No further efforts were made at concealment, though 
Peter was often very much annoyed by the crowds who fol- 
lowed his footsteps and watched all his actions. He was per- 
suaded to change his lodgings to more suitable apartments, 
though he still wore his workman's dress and toiled in the 
ship-yard with energy, and also with skill which no one could 
surpass. The extraordinary rapidity of his motions astonished 
and amused the Dutch. " Such running, ji\mping and clam- 
bering over the shipping," they said, " we never witnessed 
before." To the patriarch in Moscow he wrote, 

" I am living in obedience to the commands of God, which 
were spoken to father Adam : ' I71 the sweat of thy hroio shah 
thou eat thy bread.'' " 



320 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

Very many anecdotes are related of Peter during this por- 
tion of his life, which, though they may be apochryphal, are 
very characteristic of his eccentric nature. At one time he 
visited a celebrated iron manufjictory, and forged himself 
several bars of iron, directing his companions to assist him in 
tl)e capacity of journeymen blacksmiths. Upon the bars he 
forged, he put his own mark, and then he demanded of Mul- 
ler, the proprietor, payment for his work, at the t-ame rate 
lie paid other workmen. Having received eighteen altins, he 
said, looking at the patched shoes on his feet, 

" This will serve me to buy a pair of shoes, of which I 
stand in great need. I have earned them well, by the sweat 
of my brow, with hammer and anvil." 

When the embassadors entered Amsterdam, Peter thought 
it proper to take a part in the procession, which was arranged 
in the highest style of magnificence. The three embassadors 
rode first, followed by a long train of carriages, with servants 
in rich livery on foot. The tzar, dressed as a private gentle- 
man, was in one of the last carriages in the train of his em- 
bassadors. The eyes of the populace searched for him in 
vain. From this fete he returned eagerly to his work, with 
saw, hammer and adz, at Zaandam. He persisted in living 
like the rest of the workmen, rising early, building his own 
fire, and often cooking his own meals. One of the inhabitants 
of Zaandam thus describes his appearance at that time : 

" The tzar is very tall and robust, quick and nimble of 
foot, dexterous and rapid in all his actions. His face is plump 
and round ; fierce in his look, with brown eyebrows, and short, 
curly hair of a brownish color. He is quick in his gait, swing- 
inof his arms, and holding^ in one of them a cane." 

The Dutch were so much interested in him, that a regular 
diary was kept in Zaandam of all he said and did. Those 
who were in daily intercourse with him preserved a memoran- 
dum of all that occurred. He was generally called by the 
name of Master Peter. While hard at work in the ship-yard, 

4^ 



PETEE THE GREAT. 3^1 

he received intelligence of troubles in Poland. The renowned 
king, John Sobieski, died in 1696. The electors were divided 
in the choice of a successor. Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, 
by means of bribes and his army, obtained the vote. But 
there was great dissatisfaction, and a large party of the na- 
tion rallied around the prince of Conti, the rival candidate. 
Peter, learning these facts, immediately sent word, from his 
carpenter's shop, to Augustus, offering to send an army of 
thirty thousand men to his assistance. He frequently went 
from Zaandam to Amsterdam, to attend the anatomical lec- 
tures of the celebrated Ruisch. His thirst for knowledge ap- 
peared to be universal and insatiable. He even performed 
himself, several surgical operations. He also studied natural 
philosophy under Witsen. Most minds would have been be- 
wildered by such a multiplicity of employments, but his men- 
tal organization was of that peculiar class which grasps and 
retains all within its reach. He worked at the forge, in the 
rope-walks, at the sawing mills, and in the manufactures for 
wire drawing, making paper and extracting oil. 

While at Zaandam, Peter finished a sixty gun ship, upon 
which he had worked diligently from the laying of the k 'd. 
As the Russians then had no harbor in the Baltic, this siiip 
was sent to Archangel, on the shores of the White Sea. 
Peter also engaged a large number of French refugees, and 
Swiss and German artists, to enter his service and sent them 
to Moscow. Whenever he found a mechanic whose work 
testified to superior skill, he would secure him at almost any 
price and send him to Moscow. To geography he devoted 
great attention, and even then devised the plan of uniting the 
Caspian and the Black Sea by a ship canal. 

Early in January, 1698, Peter, having passed nine months 
at Zaandam, left for the Hague. King William III. sent his 
yacht to the Hague, to convey the tzar to England, with a 
convoy of two ships of war. Peter left the Hague on the 
18th of January, and arrived in London on the 21st. Though 

14* v^ 



322 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

he attempted liere no secrecy as to his rank, lie requested to 
be treated only as a private gentleman. A large mansion was 
engaged for him, near the royal navy yard at Deptford, a 
small town upon the Thames, about four miles from London. 
The London Postman, one of the leading metropolitan jour- 
nals of that day, thus announces this extraordinary visit: 

" The tzar of Muscovy, desiring to raise the glory of his 
nation, and avenge the Christians of all the injuries they have 
received from the Turks, has abrogated the wild manners of 
his predecessors, and having concluded, from the behavior of 
his engineers and officers, who were sent him by the Elector of 
Brandenburg, that the western nations of Euroj)e understood 
the art of war better than others, he resolved to take a journey 
thither, and not wholly to rely upon the relations which his 
embassadors might give him; and, at the same lime, to send 
a great number of his nobility into those pnrts through which 
he did not intend to travel, that he might have a coinpkte 
idea of the affairs of Europe, and enrich his subjects with the 
arts of all other Christian nations; and as navigation is the 
most useful invention that ever was yet found out, lie seems 
to have chosen it as his own part in the general inquiry he is 
about. Plis design is certainly very noble, and discovers the 
greatness of his genius. But the model he has proposed him- 
self to imitate is a convincing proof of his extraordinary judg- 
ment; for what other prince, in the world, was a fitter pattern 
for the great Emperor of Muscovy, than William the Third, 
King of Great Britain?"* 

In London and Deptford Peter followed essentially the 
same mode of life which he had adopted in Amsterdam. There 
Avas not a single aiticle belonging to a ship, from the casting 
of a cannon to the making of cables, to which he did not de- 
vote special attention. He also devoted some time to watch 
making. A number of Eno-lish artificers, and also several liter 
ary and scientific gc^ntleraen from England, were taken into 

* Postman. No. 417. 



PETEE THE GREAT. 323 

Ills service. He made arrans^ements with a distino-uishe^ 
Scotch geometrician and two mathematicians from Christ 
Clmrch hospital, to remove to Moscow, who laid the founda- 
tion in Russia of the Marine Academy. To astronomy, the 
calculation of eclipses, and the laws of gravitation he devoted 
much thought, guided by the most scientific men England 
could then produce. Perry, an English engineer, was sent to 
Russia to survey a route for a ship canal from the ocean to the 
Caspian and from the Caspian to the Black Sea. A company 
of merchants paid the tzar seventy-five thousand dollars for 
permission to import tobacco into Russia. The sale of this 
narcotic had heretofore been discouraged in Russia, by the 
church, as demoralizing in its tendency and inducing untidy 
habits. Peter was occasionally induced to attend the theater, 
but he had no relish for that amusement. He visited the vari- 
ous churches and observed the mode of conducting: relio:ious 
worship by the several sects. 

Before leaving England the tzar was entertained by King 
William with the spectacle of a sham sea fight. In this scene 
Peter was in his element, and in the excess of his delight he 
declared that an English admiral must be a happier man than 
even the tzar of Russia. His Britannic majesty made his 
guest also a present of a beautiful yacht, called the Royal 
Transport. In this vessel Peter returned to Holland, in May, 
1698, having passed four months in England. He took with 
him quite a colony of emigrants, consisting of three captains 
of men of war, twenty-five captains of merchant ships, forty 
lieutenants, thirty pilots, thirty surgeons, two hundred and 
fifty gunners, and three hundred artificers. These men from 
Holland sailed in the Royal Transport to Archangel, from 
whence they were sent to diflferent places where their services 
were needed. The officers whom the tzar sent to Italy, also 
led back to Russia many artists from that country. 

From Holland the Emperor of Russia, with his suite, re- 
paired to Vienna to observe the military discipline of the Ger- 



324 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

mans, who had then the reputation of being the best soldiers 
in Europe. He also wished to enter into a closer alliance with 
the Austrian court as his natural ally against the Turks. Peter, 
however, insisted upon laying aside all the ceremonials of roy- 
alty, and, as a private person, held an interview with the Em- 
peror Leopold. 

Nothing of especial interest occurred during the brief resi- 
dence of Peter in Vienna. The Emperor of Germany paid the 
tzar every possible attention which could be conierred upon 
one who had the strongest reluctance to be gazed upon, or to 
take part in any parade. For the amusement of the tzar the 
emperor revived the ancient game of landlord. The royal 
game is as follows. The emperor is landlord, the empress 
landlady, the heir apparent to the throne, the archdukes and 
archduchesses are generally their assistants. They entertain 
people of all nations, dressed after the most ancient fashion of 
their respective countries. The invited guests draw lots for 
tickets, on each of which is written the name or the nation of 
the character they are to represent. One is a Chinese man- 
darin, another a Persian mirza, another a Roman senator. A 
queen perhaps represents a dairy maid or a nursery girl. A 
king or prince represents a miller, a peasant or a soldier. 
Characteristic amusements are introduced. The landlord and 
landlady, with their family, wait upon the table. 

On this occasion the emperor's eldest son, Joseph, who 
was the heir apparent, represented, with the Countess of 
Traun, the ancient Egyptians. His brother, the Archduke 
Charles, and the Countess of Walstein appeared as Flemings 
in the reign of Charles Y. His sister Mary and Count Fraun 
were Tartars. Josephine, another daughter of Leopold, with 
the Count of Workla, represented Persians. Marianne, a 
third daughter, and Prince Maximilian of Hanover were Noith 
Holland peasants. Peter presented himself as a Friesland 
boor, a character, we regret to say, which the tzar could per- 
sonify without making the slightest change in his usual habits. 



PETER THE GREAT. 325 

for Peter was quite a stranger to the graces of the polished 
gentleman. 

This game seems to have been quite a favorite in the Aus- 
trian court. Maria Antoinette introduced it to Versailles. 
The tourist is still shown the dairy where that unhappy queen 
made butter and cheese, the mill where Louis XYI. ground 
his grist, and the mimic village tavern where the King and 
Queen of France, as landlord and landlady, received theii 
guests. 

Peter was just leaving Vienna to go to Venice when he 
received intelligence that a rebellion had broken out in Mos- 
cow. His ambitious sister Sophia, who had been placed with 
a shaven head in the cloisters of a monastery, took advantage 
of the tzar's absence to make another attempt to regain the 
crown. She represented that the nation was in danger of 
being overrun with foreigners, that their ancient customs 
would all be abolished, and that their religion would be sub- 
verted. She involved several of the clergy in her plans, and 
% band of eight thousand insurgents were assembled, who 
<iommenced their march towards Moscow, hoping to rouse tlie 
metropolis to unite with them. General Gordon, whom Peter 
had left in command of the royal guard, met them, and a bat- 
tle ensued in which a large number of the insurgents were 
slain, and the rest were taken prisoners and conducted to the 
capital. Hearing these tidings Peter abandoned all plans for 
visiting Itiily, and set out impetuously for Moscow, and arrived 
at the Kremlin before it was known that he had left Girmany. 

Peter was a rough, stern man, aud he determined to punish 
the abettors of this rebellion with seveiity, which should aj>pall 
all the discontented. General Gordon, in the battle, had slain 
three thousand of the insurgents and had taken five thousand 
captive. These prisoners he had punished, decimatiug them 
by lot and hanging every tenth man. Peter rewarded mag- 
nificently the royal guard, and then commenced the terrible 
chastisement of all who were judged guilty of sympathizing iv. 



326 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the conspiracy. Some were broken on the wheel and then 
beheaded. Others were hung in chains, on gibbets near the 
gates of the city, and left, frozen as solid as marble, to swing 
in the wind through the long months of winter. Stone monu- 
ments were erected, on which were engraved the names, the 
crimes and the punishment of the rebels. A large number 
were banished to Siberia, to Astrachan, and to the shores of 
the Sea of Azof. The entire corps of the strelitzes was abol- 
ished, and their place supplied by the new guard, marshaled 
and disciplined on the model of the German troops. The long 
and cumbersome robes which had been in fashion were ex 
changed for a uniform better adapted for rapid motion. The 
sons of the nobles were compelled to serve in the ranks as 
common soldiers before they could be promoted to be officers. 
Many of the young nobles were sent to the tzar's fleet in the 
Sea of Azof to serve their apprenticeship for the navy. The 
revenue of the empire had thus far been raised by the pay- 
ment of a stipulated sum from each noble according to his 
amount of land. The noble collected this sum from his vassals 
or bondmen ; but they often failed of paying in the amount 
demanded. Peter took now the collection of the revenue into 
his own hands, appointing officers for that purpose. 

Reforms in the church he also undertook. The patriarch, 
Adrian, who was the pope of the Greek church, dying about 
this time, Peter declared that he should have no successor. 
Virtually assuming the authority of the head of the church, he 
gathered the immense revenues of the patriarchal see into the 
royal treasury. Though professedly intrusting the govern- 
ment of the church to the bishops, he controlled them with 
despotism which could brook no opposition. Anxious to pro- 
mote the population of his vast empire, so sparsely inhabited, 
he caused a decree to be issued, that all the clergy, of every 
grade, should be married ; and that whenever one of the 
clergy lost a wife his clerical functions should cease until he 

obtained another. Regarding Hke monastic vow, which con 

t 



PETER THE GREAT. 327 

signed young men and young women to a life of indolence in 
the cloister, as alike injurious to morality and to the interests of 
the State, he lorbade any one from taking that vow until after 
the age of fifty had been passed. Tiiis salutary regulation has 
since his time been repealed. 

The year, in Russia, had for ages commenced with the 1st 
of September. Peter ordered that, in conformity with the 
custom in tlie rest of Europe, the year should commence with 
the 1st of January. This alteration took place in the year 
1700, and was celebrated with the most imposing solemnities. 
The national dress of the Russians was a long flowing robe, 
which required no skill in cutting or making. Razors were 
also scarce, and every man wore his beard. The tzar ordered 
long robes and beards to be laid aside. No man was admitted 
to the palace without a neatly shaven face. Throughout the 
empire a penalty was imposed upon any one who persisted in 
wearing his beard. A smooth face thus became in Russia, 
and has continued, to the present day, the badge of culture 
and refinement. Peter also introduced social parties, to which 
ladies with their daughters were invited, dressed in the fash- 
ions of southern Europe. 

Heretofore, whenever aRussian addressed the tzar, he always 
said, " Your slave begs," etc. Peter abolished this word, and 
ordered subject to be used instead. Public inns were estab- 
lished on the highways, and relays of horses for the convenience 
of travelers. Conscious of the power of splendor to awe the 
public mind, he added very considerably to the magnificence 
of his court, and instituted an order of knighthood. In all 
these measures Peter wielded the energies of an unrelenting 
despotism, and yet of a despotism which was constantly de- 
voted, not to his own personal aggrandizement, but to the wel- 
fare of his country. 

The tzar established his great ship-yard atVoronise, on the 
Don,, from which place he could float his ships down to the Sea 
of Azof, hoping to establish tj^re a fleet which would sooc 



328 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

give him the command of the Black Sea. In March, 1699, he 
had thirty-six ships launched and rigged, carrying each from 
thirty to sixty guns ; and there were then twenty more ships 
on the stoi^ks. There were, also, either finished or in process 
of construction, eighteen large galleys, one hundred smaller 
brigantines, seven bomb ships and four fire ships. At the 
same time Peter was directinor his attention to the Yolsfa and 
the Caspian, and still more vigorously to the Baltic, upon 
whose shores he had succeeded in obtaininof a foothold. 

And now the kingdom of Sweden came, with a rush, into 
the political arena. Poland had ceded to Sweden nearly the 
whole of Livonia. The Livonians were very much dissatisfied 
with the administration of the government under Charles XL, 
and sent a deputation to Stockholm to present respectful re- 
monstrances. The indignant king consigned all of the depu- 
tation, consisting of eight gentlemen, to prison, and condemned 
the leader, John Patgul, to an ignominious death. Patgul 
escaped from prison, and hastening to Poland, urged the new 
sovereign, Augustus, to reconquer the province of Livonia, 
which Poland had lost, assuring him the Livonians would aid 
with all their energies to throw ofi" the Swedish yoke. Pat- 
gul hastefted from Poland to Moscow, and urged Peter to 
unite with Augustus, in a war against Sweden, assuring him 
that thus he could easily regain the provinces of Ingria and 
Carelia, which Sweden had wrested from his ancestors. Den- 
mark also, under its new sovereign, Frederic IV., was induced 
to enter into the alliance with Russia and Poland against Swe- 
den. Just at that time, Charles XI. died, and his son, Charles 
XII., a young man of eighteen, ascended the throne. The 
youth and inexperience of the new monarch encouraged the 
allies in the hope that they might make an easy conquest. 

Charles XIL, a man of indomitable, of maniacal energy, and 
who speedily infused into his soldiers his own spirit, came 
down upon Denmark like northern wolves into southern flocks 
and herds. In less than six weeks the war was terminated 



PETEE THE GREAT. 3iX9 

and the Danes thoroughly humbled. Then with his fleet of 
thirty sail of the line and a A^1st number of transports, he 
crossed the Baltic, entered the Gulf of Finland, and marching 
over ice and snow encountered the Russians at Narva, a small 
town about eighty miles south-west of the present site of the 
city of St. Petersbui'g. The Russians were drawn up eighty 
thousand strong, behind intrench ments lined with one hundred 
and forty-live pieces of artillery ; Charles XII. had but nine 
thousand men. Taldng advantage of one of the iiercest of 
wintry storms, which blew directly into the faces of the Rus- 
sians, smothering them with snow and sleet mingled with 
smoke, and which concealed both the numbers and the move- 
ments of the Swedes, Charles XII. hurled his battalions with 
such impetuosity upon the foe, that in less than an hour the 
camp was taken by storm. One of the most awful routs known 
in the annals of war ensued. The Swedes toiled to utter ex- 
haustion in cutting down the flying fugitives. Thirty thou- 
sand Russians perished od that bloody field. Nearly all of the 
remainder were taken captive, with all their artillery. Dis- 
armed and with uncovered heads, thirty thousand of these 
prisoners defiled before the victorious king.* 

Peter, the day before this disastrous battle, had left the in- 
trenchments at Narva to go to Novgorod, ostensibly to hasten 
forward the march of some reinforcements. When Peter was 
informed of the annihilation of his army he replied, with cha- 
racteristic coolness, 

" I know very well that the Swedes w^ill have the advan- 
tage of us for a considerable time ; but they will teach us, at 
length, to beat them," 

He immediately collected the fragments of his army at 
Novgorod, and repairing to Moscow issued orders for a cer- 

* These are the numbers as accurately as they can now be ascertained by 
the most careful sifting of the contradictory accounts. The forces of the Rus- 
sians have been variously estimated at from forty thousand to one hundred 
thousand. That the Swedes had but nine thousand is admitted on all hands- 



330 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

tain proportion of the bells of the churches and convents 
throughout tiie empire to be cast into cannon and mortars. 
In a few months one hundred pieces of cannon for sieges, and 
forty-two field pieces, with twelve mortars and thirteen how- 
itzers, were sent to the army, which was rapidly being ren- 
dezvoused at Novgorod. 

Charles XII., having struck this terrific blow, left the tzar 
to recover as best he could, and turned his attention to Po- 
land, resolved to hurl Augustus from the throne. Peter him- 
self hurried to Poland to encourage Augustus to the most 
vigorous prosecution of the war, promising to send him speed- 
ily twenty thousand troojDS. In the midst of these disasters 
and turmoil, the tzar continued to prosecute his plans for the 
internal improvement of his empire, and commenced the vast 
enterprise of digging a canal which should unite the watei-s 
of the Baltic with the Caspian, first, by connecting the Don 
with the Volga, and then by connecting the Don with the 
Dwina, which empties into the Baltic near Riga. 

War continued to rage very fiercely for many months be- 
tween the Swedes on one side, and Russia and Poland on the 
other, Charles XII. gaining almost constant victories. The 
Swedes so signally proved their suj^eriority in these conflicts, 
that when, on one occasion, eight thousand Russians repulsed 
four thousand Swedes, the tzar said, 

" Well, we have at last beaten the Swedes, when we were 
two to one against them. We shall by and by be able to face 
them man to man." 

In these conflicts, it was the constant aim of Peter to get 
a foothold upon the shores of the Baltic, that he might open 
to his empire the advantages of commerce. He launched a 
large fleet upon Lake Ladoga, a large inland sea, which, by 
the river Neva, connects with the Gulf of Finland. The 
fleets of Sweden ])enetrated these remote waters, and for 
months their solitudes resounded with the roar of naval con- 
flicts. We can not refrain from recording the heroic conduct 



PETEE THE GREAT. 331 

of Colonel Schlippenbiich, the Swedish commander of the 
town of Notteburg, on this lake. The town was invested by 
a large Russian array. For a month the Russians battered the 
town night and day, until it presented the aspect of a pile of 
ruins, and the garrison was reduced to one hundred men. 
Yet, so indomitable was this little band, that, standing in the 
breaches, they extorted honorable terms of capitulation from 
their conqueror. They would not surrender but on condition 
of being allowed to send for two Swedish officers, who should 
examine their remaining means of defense, and inform their 
master, Charles XII., that it was impossible for them any 
longer to preserve the town. 

Peter was a man of too strong sense to be elated and vain- 
glorious in view of such success. He knew full well that 
Charles XII., since the battle of ISTarva, looked with utter 
contempt upon the Russian soldiers, and he was himself fully 
conscious of the vast superiority of the Swedish troops. But 
while Charles XII., with a monarch's energies, was battering 
down the fortresses and cutting to pieces the armies of Po- 
land, Peter had gained several victories over small deta,ch- 
ments of Swedish troops left in Russia. To inspire his soldiers 
with more confidence, he ordered a very magnificent celebra- 
tion of these victories in Moscow. It was one of the most 
gorgeous fete days the metropolis had ever witnessed. The 
Swedish banners, taken in several conflicts on sea and land, 
were borne in front of the procession, while all the prisoners, 
taken in the campaign, were marched in humiliation in the 
train of the victors. 

While thus employed, the stern, indefatigable tzar was 
pressing forward the building of his fleet on the Don for the 
conquest of the Black Sea, and was unwearied in his endeav- 
ors to promote the elevation of his still semi-barbaric realms, 
b) the introduction of the sciences, the arts, the manufactures 
and the social refinements of southern Europe. 



CHAPTER XX. 

CONQUESTS AND ACHIEYEMENTS OF PETER THE GREAT. 

From 1'702 to 1118. 

Peter takes Lake Ladoga and the Neva.— Foundation of St. Peteesbueo. — Con. 
QUEST of Livonia.— Marienbueg taken by Storm.— The Empriss Catharine.— 
Exteaordinauv Efforts in Building St. Petep.sburg. — Threat of CnABLES XIL 
— Deposition of Augustus. — Enthronement of Stanislaus. — Battle of Pul- 
towa. — Flight of Charles XII to Turkey. — Increased Eeno-wn of Russia. — 
Disastrous Conflict with the Turks. — Marriage of Alexis. — His Character. 
— Death of his Wife. — The Empress Acknowledged, — Conquest of Finland. — 
Tour of the Tzar to Southern Europe. 

CHARLES XII., despising the Russians, devoted all his 
energies to the humiliation of Augustus of Poland, re- 
solving to pursue him until he had driven him for ever from 
his throne. Peter was thus enabled to get the command of 
the lake of Ladoga, and of the river Neva, which connects 
that lake with the Baltic. He immediately laid the founda- 
tions of a city, St. Petersburg, to be his great commercial em- 
porium, at the mouth of the Neva, near the head of the Gulf 
of Finland. The land was low and marshy, but in other 
respects the location was admirable. Its approaches could 
easily be defended against any naval attack, and water com- 
munications were opened with the interior through the Neva 
and lake Ladoga. 

Livonia was a large province, about the size of the State 
of Maine, nearly encircled by the Gulf of Riga, the Baltic, 
the Gulf of Finland and Lake Tchude. The possession of this 
province, which contained some five hundred thousand in- 
habitants, was essential to Peter in the prosecution of his 
commercial enterprises. During the prosecution of this war 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 333 

the small town of Marienburg, on the confines of Lironia, sit- 
uated on the shores of a lake, was taken by storm. The town 
was utterly destroyed and nearly all the inhabitants slain, a 
few only being taken prisoners. The Russian commanding 
officer saw among these captives a young girl of extraordinary 
beauty, who was weeping bitterly. Attracted by such rare 
loveliness and uncontrollable grief he called her to him, and 
learned from her that she was born in a village in the vicinity 
on the borders of the lake; that she had never known her 
father, and that her mother died when she was but three 
years of age. The protestant minister of Marienburg, Dr. 
Gluck, chancing to see her one day, and ascertaining that 
she was left an orphan and friendless, received her into his 
own house, and cherished her with true parental tenderness. 

The very evening before the town of Marienburg was 
assaulted and taken by storm, she was married to a young 
Livonian sergeant, a very excellent young man, of reputable 
family and possessing a little property. In the horrors of the 
tempest of war which immediately succeeded the nuptial 
ceremonies, her husband was slain, and as his body could 
never be found, it probably was consumed in the flames, 
which laid the town in ashes. General Boyer, moved with 
compassion, took her under his protection. He ascertained 
that her character had always been irreproachable, and he 
ever maintained that she continued to be a pattern of virtue. 
She was but seventeen years of age when P^ter saw her. 
Her beauty immediately vanquished him. His wife he had 
repudiated after a long disagreement, and she had retired to 
a convent. Peter took the lovely child, still a child in years, 
under his own care, and soon privately married her, with how 
much sacredness of nuptial rites is not now known. Such 
was the early history of Catharine, who subsequently became 
the recognized and renowned Empress of Russia. 

"That a poor stranger," says Voltaire, "who had been 
discovered amid the ruins of a plundered town, should be- 



334 THE EMPIRE OF ETJSSIA. 

come the absolute sovereign of that very empire into which 
she was led captive, is an incident which fortune and merit 
have never before produced in the annals of the world." 

The city of Petersburg was founded on the 22d of May, 
1703, on a desert and marshy spot of ground, in the sixtieth 
degree of latitude. The first building was a fort which now 
stands in the center of the city. Though Peter was involved 
in all the hurry and confusion of war, he devoted himself with 
marvelous energy to the work of rearing an imperial city 
upon the bogs and the swamps of the Neva. It required the 
merciless vigor of despotism to accomplish such an enterprise. 
"Workmen were marched by thousands from Kesan, from As- 
trachan, from the Ukraine, to assist in building the city. No 
difficulties, no obstacles were allowed to impede the work. 
The tzar had a low hut, built of plank, just sufficient to shel- 
ter him from the weather, where he superintended the opera- 
tions. This hut is still preserved as one of the curiosities of 
St. Petersburg. In less than a year thirty thousand houses 
were reared, and these were all crowded by the many thou- 
sands Peter had ordered to the rising city, from all parts of 
the empire. Death made terrible ravages among them ; but 
the remote provinces furnished an abundant supply to fill the 
places of the dead. Exposure, toil, and the insalubrity of 
the marshy ground, consigned one hundred thousand to the 
grave during this first year. 

The morass had to be drained, and the ground raised by 
brinorins: earth from a distance. Wheelbarrows were not in 
use there, and the laborers conveyed the earth in baskets, 
bags and even in the skirts of their clothes, scooping it up 
with their hands and with wooden paddles. The tzar always 
manifested great respect for the outward observances of re- 
ligion, and was constant in his attendance upon divine service. 
As we have mentioned, the first building the tzar erected was 
a fort, the second was a church, the third a hotel. In the 
meantime private individuals were busily employed, by thou 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 335 

sands, in putting up shops and houses. Tlie city of Amsterdam 
was essentially the model upon which St. Petersburg was 
built. The wharves, the canals, the bridges and the rectan- 
gular streets lined with trees were arranged by architects 
brought from the Dutch metropolis. When Charles XII. 
was informed of the rapid progress the tzar was making in 
building a city on the banks of the ISTeva, he said, 

" Let him amuse himself as he thinks fit in building his 
city. I shall soon find time to take it from him and to put his 
wooden houses in a blaze." 

Five months had not passed away, from the commencement 
of operations upon these vast morasses at the mouth of the 
Neva, ere, one day, it was reported to the tzar that a large 
ship under Dutch colors was in full sail entering the harbor. 
Peter was overjoyed at this realization of the dearest wish of 
his heart. With ardor he set off to meet the welcome stran- 
ger. He found that the ship had been sent by one of his old 
friends at Zaandam. The cargo consisted of salt, wine and 
provisions generally. The cargo was landed free from all 
duties and was speedily sold to the great profit of the owners. 
To protect his capital, Peter immediately commenced his 
defenses at Cronstadt, about thirty miles down the bay. 
From that hour until this, Russia has been at work upon those 
fortifications, and. they can now probably bid defiance to all 
the navies of the world. 

Charles XII., sweeping Poland with fire and the sword, 
drove Augustus out of the kingdom to his hereditary elector- 
ate of Saxony, and then, convening the Polish nobles, caused 
Stanislaus Leczinsky, one of his own followers, to be elected 
sovereign, and sustained him on the throne by all the power of 
the Swedish armies."^ The Swedish warrior now fitted out a 
fleet for the destruction of Cronstadt and Petersburg. The 
defense of the province was intrusted to Menzikoff. This man 
subsequently passed through a career so full of vicissitudes 

* See Empire of Austria, page 382. 



336 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

that a sketch of his varied life thus far seems important. He 
was the son of one of the humblest of the peasants living in 
the vicinity of Moscow. When but thirteen years of age he 
was taken into the service of a pastry-cook to sell pies and 
cakes about the streets, and he was accustomed to attract 
customers by singing jocular songs. The tzar chanced to hear 
him one day, and, diverted by his song and struck by his 
bright, intelligent appearance, called for the boy, and offered 
to purchase his whole stock, both cakes and basket. 

The boy replied, 

" It is my business to sell the cakes, and I have no right 
to sell the basket without my master's permission. Yet, as 
every thing belongs to our prince, your majesty has only to 
give the command, and it is my duty to obey." 

This adroit, apt answer so pleased the tzar that he took 
the lad into his service, giving him at first some humble em- 
ployment. But being dail}'' more pleased with his wit and 
shrewdness, he raised him, step by step, to the highest pre- 
ferment. Under the tuition of General Le Fort, he attained 
great skill in military affairs, and became one of the bravest 
and most successful of the Russian generals. 

Early in the spring of 1705 the Swedish fleet, consisting 
of twenty-two ships of war, each carrying about sixty guns, 
besides six frigates, two bomb ketches and two fire ships, 
approached Cronstadt, At the same time a large number of 
transports landed a strong body of troops to assail the forts in 
the rear. This was the most formidable attack Charles XII. 
had yet attempted in his wars. Though the Swedes almost 
invariably conquered the Russians in the open field, Menzikoff, 
from behind his well-constructed redoubts, beat back his assail- 
ants, and St. Petersburg was saved. The summer passed away 
with many but undecisive battles, until the storms of the long 
northern winter separated the combatants. The state of ex- 
asperation was now such that the most revolting cruelties 
were perpetrated on both sides. 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEYEMENTS. 337 

The campaign of 1706 opened most disastrously to Russia. 
In four successive pitched battles the forces of the tzar had 
been defeated. Augustus was humbled to the dust, and was 
compelled to write a letter to Stanislaus congratulating him 
upon his accession to the throne. He also ignomiuiously con- 
sented to deliver up the unfortunate Livonian noble, Patgul, 
whose only crime was his love for the rights and privileges of 
his country. Charles XII. caused this unhappy noble to be 
broken upon the wheel, thus inflicting a stain upon his own 
character which can never be effaced. The haughty Swedish 
monarch seemed now to be sovereign over all of northern 
Europe exceptmg Russia. Augustus, driven from the throne 
of Poland, was permitted to hold the electorate of Saxony 
only in consequence of his abject submission to Charles XII. 
Stanislaus, the new Polish sovereign, was merely a vassal of 
Sweden. And even the Emperor Joseph of Germany paid 
implicit obedience to the will of a monarch who had such ter 
rible armies at his command. 

Under these circumstances some of the powers endeavored 
to secure peace between Sweden and Russia. The French 
envoy at the court of Sweden introduced the subject. Charles 
XII. proudly replied, "I shall treat with the tzar in the city 
of Moscow." 

Peter, being informed of this boast and threat, remarked, 
" My brother Charles wants to act the part of Alexander, but 
he shall not find in me a Darius." 

Charles XII., from his triumphant invasion of Saxony, 
marched with an army of forty-five thousand men through 
Poland, which was utterly desolated by war, and crossing the 
frontiers of Russia, directed his march to Moscow. Drivinsf 
all opposition before him, he arrived upon the banks of the 
Dnieper, and without much difficulty effected the passage of 
the stream. Peter himself, with Menzikoff, now hastened to 
She theater of conflict, and summoned his mightiest energies 
to repel the foe. Battle after battle ensued with varying re- 

1.5 



338 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

suits. But the situation of the Swedish conqueror was fast 
growing desperate. He was far from home. His regiments 
were daily diminishing beneath the terrible storms of war, 
while recruits were pouring in, from all directions, to swell 
the ranks of the tzar. It was the month of December. The 
villages had been all burned and the country turned into a 
desert. The cold was so intense that on one particular match 
two thousand men dropped down dead in their ranks. The 
wintry storms soon became so severe that both parties were 
compelled to remain for some time in inaction. Every poor 
peasant, within fifty miles, was robbed by detachments of 
starving soldiers. 

The moment the weather permitted, both armies were 
again in action. -Charles XH. had taken a circuitous route 
towards Moscow, through the Ukraine, hoping to rouse the 
people of this region to join his standards. This plan, how- 
ever, proved an utter failure. About the middle of June the 
two armies, led by their respective sovereigns, met at Pul- 
towa, upon the Worskla, near its point of junction with the 
Dnieper, about four hundred miles south of Moscow. Several 
days were passed in maneuvering and skirmishing in prepara- 
tion for a decisive struggle. It was evident to all Europe that 
the great battle to ensue would decide the fate of Russia, Po- 
land and Sweden. Thirty thousand war-worn veterans were 
marshaled under the banners of Charles XII. The tzar led 
sixty thousand troops into the conflict. Fully aware of the 
superiority of the Swedish troops, he awaited the attack of his 
formidable foe behind his redoubts. In one of the skirmishes, 
two days before the great battle, a bullet struck Charles XII., 
shattering the bone of his heel. It was an exceedingly pain- 
ful wound, which was followed by an equally painful opera- 
tion. Though the indomitable warrior was suffering severely, 
he caused himself to be borne in a litter to the head of his 
troops, and led the charge. The attack upon the intrench- 
ments was made with all the characteristic impetuosity of 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 339 

these demoniac fighters. Notwithstanding the storm of gi-ape 
shot which was hurled into their faces, covering the ground 
with the mangled and the dead, two of the redoubts were 
taken, and shouts of victory ran along the lines of the Swedes. 
The action continued with fiend-like ferocity for two hours. 
Charles XII., with a pistol in his hand, was borne on his Utter 
from rank to rank, animating his troops, until a cannon ball, 
striking down one of his bearers, also shattered the litter into 
fragments, and dashed the bandaged monarch to the ground. 
With as much calmness as though this were an ordinary, every- 
day occurrence, Charles ordered his guards immediately to 
make another litter with their pikes. He was placed upon it, 
and continued to direct the battle, paying no more attention 
to bullets, balls and bombshells, than if they had been snow 
flakes. 

Peter was equally prodigal of danger. Death in that hour 
was more desirable to him than defeat, for Charles XII., vic- 
torious, would march direct to Moscow, and Russia would 
share the fate of Poland. The tzar was conspicuous at every 
point where the battle raged most fiercely. Several bullets 
pierced his clothes ; one passing through his hat just grazed 
the crown of his head. At length, the Swedes, overpowered 
by numbers, gave way, and fled in great confusion. Charles, 
though agonized by his wound, was compelled to mount on 
horseback as the only means of escape fi-om capture. The 
black hour of woe came, which sooner or later meets almost 
every warrior, however successful for a time his career may 
be. The blow was fatal to Charles XII. More than nine 
thousand of the Swedes were left dead upon the field of battle. 
Eighteen thousand were taken prisoners. The Swedish king, 
with a few hundred troops in his retinue, cut off" from his re- 
treat towards Sweden, crossed the Dnieper and fled to Tur- 
key. Peter did not pursue him, but being informed of his 
desperate resolve to seek refuge in the territory of the Turks, 
he magnanimously wrote a letter to him, urging him not to* 



340 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

take so perilous a step, assuring him, upon his honor, that he 
would not detain him as a prisoner, but that all their difficul- 
ties should be settled by a reasonable peace. A special cou- 
rier was dispatched with this letter, but he could not overtake 
the fugitives. When the courier arrived at the river Boy, 
which separates the deserts of Ukraine from the territories of 
the Grand Seignor, the Swedes had already crossed the river. 
In the character of Peter there was a singular compound of 
magnanimity and of the most brutal insensibility and merci- 
lessness. He ordered all the Swedish generals, who were his 
captives, to be introduced to him, returned to them their 
swords and invited them to dine. With a gracefulness of 
courtesy rarely surpassed, he offered as a toast the sentiment, 
*' To the health of my masters in the art of war." And yet, 
soon after, he consigned nearly all these captives to the hor- 
rors of Siberian exile. 

This utter defeat of Charles XII. produced a sudden revo- 
lution in Poland, Sweden and Saxony. Peter immediately 
dispatched a large body of cavalry, under Menzikoff, to Po- 
land, to assist Augustus in regaining his crown. Soon after, 
he followed himself, at the head of an army, and entering 
Warsaw in triumph, on the Vth of October, 1709, replaced 
Augustus upon the throne from which Charles XII. had 
ejected him. The whole kingdom acknowledged Peter for 
their protector. Peter then marched to the electorate of 
Brandenburg, which had recently been elevated into the 
kingdom of Prussia, and performing the functions of his own 
embassador, entered into a treaty with Frederic I., grand- 
father of Frederic the Great. He then returned with all 
eagerness to St. Petersburg, and pressed forward the erection 
of new buildings and the enlargement of the fleet. 

A magnificent festival was here arranged in commemora- 
tion of the great victory of Pultowa. Nine arches were 
reared, beneath which the procession marched, in the most 
'gorgeous array of civic and military pageantry. The artillery 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 341 

of the vanquished, their standards, the shattered Utter of the 
king, and the vast array of captives, soldiers and officers, all 
on foot, followed in the train of the triumphal procession, 
while the ringing of bells, the explosion of an hundred pieces 
of artillery, and the shouts of an innumerable multitude, 
added to the enthusiasm which the scene inspired. 

The battle of Pultowa gave Peter great renown through- 
out Europe, and added immeasurably to the reputation of 
Russia. An occurrence had taken place in London which had 
deeply offended the tzar, who, wielding himself the energies 
of despotism, could form no idea of that government of law 
which was irrespective, of the will of the sovereign. The 
Russian embassador at the court of Queen Anne had been 
arrested at the suit of a tradesman in London, and had been 
obliged to give bail to save himself from the debtor's prison. 
Peter, regarding this as a personal insult, demanded of Queen 
Anne satisfaction. She expressed her regret for the occur- 
rence, but stated, that according to the laws of England, a 
creditor had a right to sue for his just demands, and that 
there was no statute exempting foreign embassadors from 
being arrested for debt. Peter, who had no respect for con- 
stitutional liberty, was not at all satisfied with this decla- 
ration, but postponed further action until his conflict with 
Sweden should be terminated. 

Now, in the hour of victory, he turned again to Queen 
Anne and demanded reparation for what he deemed the in- 
sult offered to his government. He threatened, in retaliation, 
to take vengeance upon all the merchants and British subjects 
within his dominions. This was an appalling menace. Queen 
Anne accordingly sent Lord Whitworth on a formal embassy 
to the tzar, with a diplomatic lie in his mouth. Addressing 
Peter in the flattering words of "most high and mighty em- 
peror," he assured him, that the offending tradesman had been 
punished with imprisonment and rendered infamous, and that 
an act of Parliament should be passed, rendering it no longei 



342 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

lawful to arrest a foreign embassador. The offender had not 
been punished, but the act was subsequently passed. 

The acknowledgment, accompanied by such flattering tes- 
timonials of respect, was deemed satisfactory. The tzar had 
demanded the death of the offender. Every Englishman must 
read with pride the declaration of Queen Anne in reference to 
this demand. 

" There are," said she, " insuperable difficulties with respect 
to the ancient and fundamental laws of the government of our 
people, which we fear do not 2^e7'7nU so severe and rigorous a 
sentence to be given, as your imperial majesty first seemed to 
expect in tbis case. And we persuade ourselves that your im- 
perial majesty, who are a prince famous for clemency and 
exact justice, will not require us, who are the guardian and 
protector of the laws^ to inflict a punishment on our subjects 
which the law does not empower us to do." 

The whole of Livonia speedily fell into the hands of the 
tzar and was reannexed to Russia. Pestilence, which usually 
follows in the train of war, now rose from the putiidity of 
battle fields, and sweeping, like the angel of death, over the 
war-scathed and starving inhabitants of Livonia, penetrated 
Sweden. Whole provinces were depopulated, and in Stock- 
holm alone thirty thousand perished. The war of the Spanish 
Succession was now raging, and every nation in Europe was 
engaged in the work of destruction and butchery. Spain, 
Portugal, Italy, France, the German empire, England, Hol- 
land, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, were all in arms, and hun- 
dreds of millions of men were directly or indirectly employed 
in the work of mutual destruction. The fugitive king, Charles 
XII., was endeavoring to enlist the energies of the Ottoman 
Porte in his behalf, and the Grand Scignor had promised 
to throw his armies also, two hundred thousand strong, into 
the arena of flame and blood, and to march for the conquest 
of Russia. 

Peter, conscious of the danger of an attack from Turkey, 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 343 

raised an army of one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, 
when he was informed that the Turks, with a combined army 
of two hundred and ten thousand troops, were ravaging the 
province of Azof. Urging his troops impetuously onward, he 
crossed the Pruth and entered Jassi, the capital of Moldavia. 
The grand vizier, with an army three times more numerous, 
crossed the Danube and advanced to meet him. For three 
days the contending hosts poured their shot into each other's 
bosoms. The tzar, outnumbered and surrounded, though 
enabled to hold his position behind his intrenchments, saw 
clearly that famine would soon compel him to surrender. His 
position was desperate. 

Catharine had accompanied her husband on this expe- 
dition, and, at her earnest solicitation, the tzar sent proposals 
of peace to the grand vizier, accompanied with a valuable 
present of money and jewels. The Turk, dreading the ener- 
gies which despair might develop in so powerful a foe, was 
willing to come into an accommodation, and entered into a 
treaty, which, though greatly to the advantage of the Otto- 
man Porte, rescued the tzar from the greatest peril in which 
he had ever been placed. The grand vizier good-naturedly 
Bent several wagons of provisions to the camp of his humbled 
foes, and the Russians returned to their homes, having lost 
twenty thousand men. 

Alexis, the oldest son of Peter, had . erer been a bad boy, 
and he had now grown up into an exceedingly dissolute and 
vicious young man. Indolent, licentious, bacchanalian in his 
habits, and overbearing, his father had often threatened to 
deprive him oFhis right of succession, and to shave his crown 
and consign him to a convent. Hoping to improve his char- 
acter, he urged his marriage, and selected for him a beauti- 
ful princess of Wolfenbuttle, as the possessions of the dukes 
of Brunswick were then called. The old ducal castle still 
stands on the banks of the Oka about forty miles south-east 
of Hanover. The princess of Wolfenbuttle, who was but 



344 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

eighteen years of age, was sister to the Empress of Germa* 
ny, consort of Charles YI. The young Russian prince was 
dragged very reluctantly to this marriage, for he wished to 
be shackled by no such ties. He was the son of Peter's first 
wife, not of the Empress Catharine, whom the tzar had now 
acknowledged. Peter and Catharine attended these untoward 
nuptials, which were celebrated in the palace of the Queen of 
Poland, in which a princess as lovely in character as in person 
was sacrificed to one who made the few remaining months of 
her life a continued martyrdom. But little more than a year 
had passed after their marriage ere she was brought to bed 
of a son. Her heart was already broken, and she was quite 
unprepared for the anguish of such an hour. Though the 
sweetness of her disposition and the gentleness of her man- 
ners had endeared her to all her household, her husband 
treated her with the most brutal neglect and cruelty, Un- 
blushingly he introduced into the palace his mistresses, and 
the saloons ever resounded with the uproar of his drunken 
companions. The woe-stricken princess, then but twenty 
years of age, covered her face with the bed clothes, and, 
weeping bitterly, refused to take any nourishment, and begged 
the physicians to permit her to die in peace. Intelligence 
was immediately sent to the tzar of the confinement of his 
daughter in-law, and of her dangerous situation. He hastened 
to her chamber. The interview was short, but so afiecting 
that the tzar, losing all self-control, burst into an agony of 
grief and wept like a child. The dying princess commended 
to his care her babe and her servants, and, as the clock struck 
tlie hour of midnight, her spirit departed, we trust to that 
world " where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary 
are at rest." The orphan babe was baptized as Peter Alexis, 
and subsequently, on the death of the Empress Catharjne, 
became Emperor of Russia. 

On the 20th of February, 1712, Peter, who had previously 
acknowledged his private marriage with Catharine, had the 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 345 

marriage publicly solemnized at St. Petersburg with the 
utmost pomp. Soon after this, to the inexpressible joy of 
both parents, Catharine gave birth to a son. The war with 
Sweden still continued, notwithstanding Charles XII. was a 
fugitive in Turkey unable to return to his own country. 
Finland, a vast realm containing one hundred and thirty-five 
thousand square miles and almost embraced by the Gulfs of 
Bothnia and of Finland, then belonged to Sweden. Peter 
fitted out an expedition from St. Petersburg for the conquest 
of that country. With three hundred ships, conveying thir- 
teen thousand men, he effected a landing in the vicinity of 
Abo notwithstanding the opposition of the Swedish force 
there, and, establishing his troops in redoubts with ample 
supplies, he returned to St. Petersburg for reinforcements. 
He soon returned, and, with an army augmented to twenty 
thousand foot and four thousand horse, with a powerful train 
of artillery, commenced a career of conquest. The city of 
Abo, on the coast, the capital of Finland, fell unresistingly 
into his hands with a large quantity of provisions. There 
was a flourishing university here containing a valuable library, 
Peter sent the books to St. Petersburg, and they became the 
foundation of the present royal library in that place. 

The tzar, leaving the prosecution of the war to his gen- 
erals, returned to St. Petersburg. Many and bloody battles 
were fought in those northern wilds during the summer, in 
most of which the Russians had the advantage, gaining citadel 
after citadel until winter drove the combatants from the field. 

With indefatigable zeal Peter pressed forward in his plan 
to give splendor and power to his new city of Petersburg. 
One thousand flimilies were moved there from Moscow. Very 
flattering offers were made to induce foreigners to settle there, 
and a decree was issued declaring Petersburg to be the only 
port of entry in the empire. He ordered that no more wood- 
en houses should be built, and that all should be covered with 
tile ; and to secure the best ai-chitects from Europe, he offered 

15* 



34G THE EMPIKE OF KITSSIA. 

ihem houses rent free, and entire exemption from taxes for 
fourteen years. The campaign of another summer, that of 
1714, rendered the tzar the master of the whole province of 
Finland. 

In the autumn of this year, Charles XII., escaped from 
Turkey, where he had performed pranks outriv^aling Don 
Quixote, and liad finally been held a prisoner. He traversed 
Hungary and Germany in disguise, and traveling day and 
night, in such haste that but one of his attendants could keep 
up with him, arrived, exhausted and haggard, in Sweden. He 
was received with the liveliest demonstrations of joy, and im- 
mediately placed himself again at the head of the Swedish 
armies. 

The tzar, however, conscious that he now had not much 
to fear from Sweden, left the conduct of the desultory war 
with his generals, and set out on another tour of observation 
to southern Europe. The lovely Catharine, who, with the fairy 
form and sylph-like grace of a girl of seventeen, had won the 
love of Peter, was now a staid and worthy matron of middle 
life. She had, however, secured the abiding affection of the 
tzar, and he loved to take her with him on all his journeys. 
Catharine, though on the eve of again becoming a mother, 
accompanied her husband as far as Holland. Through Stial- 
sund, Mecklenburg and Hamburg, they proceeded to Rostock, 
where a fleet of forty-five galleys awaited him. The emperor 
took the command, and hoisting his flag, sailed to Copenha- 
gen. Here he was entertained for two months with profuse 
hospitality by the King of Denmark, during which time he 
studied, with sleepless vigilance, the institutions and the artis- 
tic attainments of the country. 

About the middle of December he arrived at Amster- 
dam. The city gave him a splendid reception, and he was 
welcomed by the Earl of Albemarle in a very compliment- 
ary speech, pompous and flowery. T\e uncourteous tzar 
bluntly replied. 



CONQUESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 347 

*'I thank you heartily, though I don't understand much 
of what you say. I learned my Dutch among ship-builders, 
but the sort of language you have spoken I am sure I never 
learned." 

Some of his old companions, who were ship-builders, and 
had acquired wealth, invited him to dine. They addressed 
him as " your majesty." Peter cut them short, saying, 

" Come, brothers, let us converse like plain and honest 
ship-carpenters." 

A servant brought him some wine. " Give me the jug," 
said he laughing, " and then I can drink as much as I please, 
and no one can tell how much I have taken." 

He hastened to Zaandam, where he was received with the 
utmost joy by his old friends from whom he had parted nine- 
teen years before. An old woman pressed forward to greet 
him. 

" My good woman," said the tzar, " how do you know 
Avho I am ?" 

" I am the widow," she said, " of Baas Pool, at whose 
table your majesty so often sat nineteen years ago." 

The emperor kissed her upon the forehead and invited 
her to dine with him that very day. One of his first visits 
was to the little cottage, or rather hut, w^hich he had occupied 
while residing there. The cottage is still carefully preserved, 
having been purchased in 1823 by the sister of the Emperor 
Alexander, and enclosed in another building with large arched 
windows. The room was even then reofarded as sacred. In 
the center stood the oaken table and the three wooden chairs 
which constituted the furniture when Peter occupied it. The 
loft was ascended by a ladder which still remains. 

With all the roughness of Peter's exterior, he had always 
been a man of deep religious feelings, and through all his life 
was in habits of daily prayer. This loft had been his place of 
private devotion to which he daily ascended. Upon entering 
the cottage and finding every thing just as he had left it, the 



348 THE EMPIIIE OF RUSSIA. 

tzar was for a moment much affected. He ascended the lad- 
der to his closet of prayer in the loft, and there remained 
alone with his God for a full half hour. Eventful indeed and 
varied had his life been since there, a young man of twenty- 
five, he had daily sought divine guidance. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THB TRIAL AND CONDEilNATION OF ALEXIS, AND DEATH 

OP THB TZAR. 

Fkom 1718 TO 1125. 

The Tzab's Secoxd Visit to Holland. — Reczption in Feanoe. — Description ov 
Catharine. — Domestic Grief. — Conduct of Alexis. — Letters from His Father, 
— Flight TO Germany. — Thence to Naples. — Envoys Sent to Bring Him Back. 
— Alexis Excluded from the Succession. — His Trial for Treason. — Condemna- 
tion AND Unexpected Death. — New Efforts of the Tzar for the Welfare of 
EussiA. — Sickness of Peter. — His Death. — Succession of the Empress Catha- 
BiNE. — Epitaph to the Emperor. 

FROM Holland the tzar went to Paris. Great preparations 
were made there for his reception, and apartments in the 
Louvre were gorgeously fitted up for the accommodation of* 
him and his suite. But Peter, annoyed by parade, declined 
the sumptuous palace, and, the very evening of his arrival, 
took lodgings at the Hotel de Lesdiguieres. To those who 
urged his acceptance of the saloons of the Louvre he replied, 

" I am a soldier. A little bread and beer satisfy me. I 
prefer small apartments to large ones. I have no desire to 
be attended with pomp and ceremony, nor to give trouble 
to so many people." 

Every hour of his stay in Paris was employed in study- 
ing the institutions of the realm, and the progress made in 
tlie arts and sciences. Standing by the tomb of Richelieu, 
which is one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Europe, he 
exclaimed, 

"Thou great man ! I would have given thee one half of 
my dominions to learn of thee how to govern the other half." 

All the trades and manufactures of the cauital he exam- 



350 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

ined with the greatest care, and took back with him to St. 
Petersburg a large number of the most skillful artists and 
mechanics. Leaving France he returned to Amsterdam, 
where he rejoined Catharine, and proceeded with her to Ber- 
lin. A haughty German lady, piqued, perhaps, that a woman 
not of noble birth should be an empress, thus describes the 
appearance of Catharine at that time : 

"The tzarina is short and lusty, remarkably coarse, with- 
out grace and animation. One need only see her to be satis- 
fied of her low birth. At the first blush one would take hei 
for a German actress. Her clothes looked as if bought at a 
doll shop ; every thing was so old fashioned and so bedecked 
with silver and tinsel. She was decorated with a dozen orders, 
portraits of saints, and relics, which occasioned such a clatter 
that when slie walked one would suppose that an ass with bells 
was approaching. The tzar, on the contrary, was tall and well 
made. His countenance is handsome, but there is something 
in it so rude that it inspires one with dread. He was dressed 
like a seaman, in a frock, without lace or ornament."* 

On Peter's return to Russia, he was compelled to meet 
and grasp a trouble which for fifteen years had embittered his 
life. His son, Alexis, had ever been a thorn in his father's 
side. He was not only indolent and dissipated, but he was 
utterly opposed to all his father's measures for reform, and 
Avas continually engaged in underhand measures to head a 
party against him. Upon the death of the unhappy princess 
of Wolfenbuttle, wife of this worthless prince, the grieved and 
indignant father wrote to hira as follows : 

" I shall wait a little while longer to see if there be any 
hopes of your reform. If not, I shall cut you off from the 
succession as one lops off a dead branch. Do not think that 
I wish to intimidate you; and do not place too much reliance 
upon the fact that you are my only son. f If I am willing to 

* Memoires de la Margrave de Bareith. 

I The empress gave birth to a son shortly after this letter was written. 



TRIAL AND CONDEMNATIO:S OF ALEXIS. 351 

lay down my own life for Russia, do you think that I shall be 
willing to sacrifice my country for you ? I would rather trans- 
mit the crown to an entire stranger worthy of the trust, than 
to my own child unworthy of it." 

This letter produced no effect upon the shameless de- 
bauchee. He continued unchecked in his career of infamy. 
In acknowledging the receipt of his father's letter, he con- 
temptuously replied that he had no wish for the crown, and 
that he was ready at any time to take an oath that he would 
renounce it for ever. Matters were in this position when the 
tzai* left for Denmark. He had hardly arrived in Copenhagen 
when he received dispatches informing him that his son was 
gathering around him all the disaffected, and was seriously 
endangering the -tranquillity of the State. Once more the 
anxious father wrote to him in these words : 

" I observe in your letter that you say not a word of the 
affliction your conduct has caused me for so many years. A 
father's admonitions seem to produce no impression upon you. 
I have prevailed on myself to write you once more, and for 
the last time. Those bushy beards bind you to their pur- 
poses. They are the persons whom you trust, who place their 
hopes in you ; and you have no gratitude to him who gave 
you life. Since you were of age have you ever aided your 
father in his toils? Have you not opposed every thing I have 
done for the good of my people ? Have I not reason to believe 
that should you survive me you will destroy all that I have 
accomplished ? Amend your life. Render yourself worthy of 
the succession, or turn monk. Reply to this either in person 
or in writing. If you do not I shall treat you as a criminal." 

The reply of Alexis was laconic indeed. It consisted of 
just four lines, and was as follows: 

" Your letter of the ] 9th I received yesterday. My illness 
prevents me from writing at length. I intend to embrace the 
monastic life, and I request your gracious consent to that ef- 
fect." 



352 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

Seven months passed away, during which the tzar heard 
nothing directly from his son, though the father kept himself 
informed of his conduct. As Peter was returning: from France 
he wrote to his son reproaching him for his long silence, and 
requesting him, if he wished to amend his ways and secure his 
father's favor, to meet him at Copenhagen ; but that if, on the 
contrary, he preferred to enter a convent, which was the only 
alternative, he should inform him by the return courier, that 
measures might be adopted to carry the plan immediately into 
effect. 

This brought matters to a crisis. The last thing .the 
bloated debauchee wished was to enter a convent. He was 
equally averse to a sober life, and dared not meet his father 
lest he should be placed under arrest. He consequently made 
no reply, but pretending that he was to set out immediately 
for Copenhagen, he secured all the treasure he could lay his 
hands upon and fled to Germany, to the court of the Emperor 
Charles YI., who, it will be remembered, was his brother-in- 
law, having married a sister of his deceased wife. Here he 
told a deplorable story of the cruelty of his father, of the per- 
secutions to which he was exposed, and that to save his life he 
had been compelled to flee from Kussia. 

The emperor, knowing full well that the young man was 
an infamous profligate, was not at all disposed to incur the 
displeasure of Peter by apparently espousing the cause of the 
son against the father. He consequently gave the miscreant 
such a cold reception that he found the imperial palace any 
thing but a pleasant place of residence, and again he set out 
on his vagabond travels. The next tidings his father heard 
of him were that he was in Naples, spending, as ever, his sub- 
stance in riotous living. A father's heart still yearned over 
the miserable young man, and compassion was blended with 
disappointment and indignation. He immediately dispatched 
two members of his court, M. RomanzoflT, captain of the royal 
guards, and M. Toltoi, a privy counselor, to Naples, to make 



TPIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS. 353 

a last effort to reclaim his misguided son. They found the 
young man in the chateau of Saint Elme, and presented to him 
a letter from his father. It was dated Spa, July 1, 1717, and 
contained the following words : 

*' I write to you for the last time. Toltoi and Romanzoff 
will make known to you my will. If you obey me, I assure 
you, and I promise before God, that I will not punish you, but 
if you will return to me I will love you better than ever. 
But if you will not return to me, I pronounce upon you, as 
your father, in virtue of the power I have received from God, 
my eternal malediction ; and, as your sovereign, I assure you 
that I shall find means to punish you, in which I trust God 
will assist me." 

It required the most earnest persuasion, and even the 
intervention of the viceroy of Naples, to induce Alexis to 
return to Russia. The miserable man had a harem of aban- 
doned women with him, with whom he set out on his return. 
They arrived in Moscow the 13th of February, 1718, and on 
that very day Peter had an interview with his son. N'o one 
knows what passed in that interview. The rumor of the 
arrival of Alexis spread rapidly through the city, and it was 
supposed that a reconciliation had taken place. But the next 
morning, at the earliest dawn, the great bell of Moscow rang 
an alarm, the royal guards were marshaled and the privy 
counselors of the emperor were summoned to the Kremlin 

Alexis was led, without his sword and as a prisoner, into 
the presence of his father. At the same time, all the high 
ecclesiastics of the church were assembled, in solemn conclave, 
in the cathedral church. Alexis fell upon his knees before his 
father, confessed his faults, renounced all claim to the succes- 
sion and entreated only that his life might be spared. The 
tzar led his son into an adjoining room, where they for some 
time remained alone. He then returned to his privy council 
and read a long statement, very carefully drawn up, minutely 
recapitulating the conduct of Alexis, his indolence, his shame- 



354 TUE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

less libertinism, his low companionship, his treasonable do 
signs, and exhibiting his utter mifitness, in all respects, to be 
entrusted with the government of an empire. This remarka- 
ble document was concluded with the followinsf words: 

"Now although our son, by such criminal conduct, merits 
the punishment of death, yet our paternal affection induces us 
to pardon his crimes and to exempt him from the penalty 
Avhich is his due. But considering his unworthiness, as devel- 
oped in the conduct we have descrj.bed, we can not, in con- 
science, bequeath to him the throne of Russia, foreseeing that, 
by his vicious courses, he would degrade the glory of our 
nation, endanger its safety and speedily lose those provinces 
which we have recovered from our foes with so much toil and 
at so vast an expense of blood and treasure. To inflict upon 
our faithful subjects the rule of such a sovereign, would be to 
expose them to a condition worse than Russia has ever yet 
experienced. We do therefore, by our paternal authority, 
in virtue of which, by the laws of our empire, any of our sub- 
jects may disinherit a son and give his succession to such 
other of his sons as he pleases, and, in quality of sovereign 
prince, in consideration of the safety of our dominions, we do 
deprive our son, Alexis, for his crimes and unworthiness, of 
the succession after us to our throne of Russia, and we do con- 
stitute and declare successor to the said throne after us our 
second son, Peter. 

" We lay upon our said son, Alexis, our paternal curse if 
ever, at any time, he pretends to, or reclaims said succession, 
and we desire our faithful subjects, whether ecclesiastics or 
seculars, of all ranks and conditions, and the whole Russian 
nation, in conformity to this, our will, to acknowledge our son 
Peter as lawful successor, and to confirm the whole by oath 
before the holy altar upon the holy gospel, kissing the cross. 
And all those who shall ever oppose this, our will, and shall 
dare to consider our son, Alexis, as successor, we declare 
traitors to us and to their country. We have ordered these 



1 



TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS. 355 

presents to be every wli ere promulgated, that no person may 
pretend ignorance. Given at Moscow, February 3d, 1718." 

This document was then taken to the cathedral, where all 
the higher ecclesiastics had been assembled, and was read to 
them. Nothing was omitted which could invest the act with 
solemnity. There is every evidence that the heart of the 
father was rent with acutest anguish in all these proceedings. 
Nothing could have been more desirable to him than to trans- 
mit the empire his energies had rendered so illustrious, to his 
own son to carry on the enterprises his father had commenced. 
But to place eighteen millions of people in the hands of one 
who had proved himself so totally unworthy, would have been 
the greatest cruelty. The exclusion of Alexis from the suc- 
cession was the noblest act of Peter's life. 

But new facts were soon developed which rendered it im- 
possible for the unhappy father to stop even here. Evidence 
came to light that Alexis had been plotting a conspiracy for 
the dethronement of his father, and for the seizure of the 
crown by violence. His mother, whom the tzar had repudi- 
ated, and his energetic aunt, Mary, both of whom were in a 
convent, were involved in the plot. He had applied to his 
brother-in-law, the Emperor of Germany, for foreign troops 
to aid him. There were many restless spirits in the empire, 
turbulent and depraved, the boon companions of Alexis, who 
were ready for any deeds of desperation which might place 
Alexis on the throne. The second son of the emperor, the 
child of Catharine, was an infant of but a few months old. 
The health of Peter was infirm and his life doubtful. It was 
manifest that immediately upon the death of the tzar, Alexis 
would rally his accomplices around him, raise the banner of 
revolt against the infant king, and that thus the empire would 
be plunged into all the horrors of a long and bloody civil war. 

Peter having commenced the work of self-sacrifice for the 
salvation of Russia, was not disposed to leave that work half 
accomplished. All knew that the infamous Alexis would 



356 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

shrink from no crime, and there was ample eviience of his 
treasonable plots. The father now deliberately resolved to 
arraign his son for high treason, a crime which doomed him 
to death. Aware of the awful solemnity of such a moment, 
and of the severity with which his measures and his motives 
would be sifted by posterity, he proceeded w^ith the greatest 
circumspection. A high court of justice was organized for 
tlie trial, consisting of two chambers, the one ecclesiastical, 
the other secular. On the 13th of June, 1718, the court was 
assembled, and the tzar presented to them the documentary 
evidence, which had been carefully obtained, of his son's trea- 
sonable designs, and thus addressed them : 

" Though the flight of Alexis, the son of the tzar, and a 
part of his crimes be already known, yet there are now dis- 
covered such unexpected and surprising attempts, as plainly 
show with what baseness and villainy he endeavored to impose 
on us, his sovereign and father, and what perjuries he hath 
committed against Almighty God, all which shall now be laid 
before you. Though, according to all laws, civil and divine, 
and especially those of this empire, which grant fathers abso- 
lute jurisdiction over their children, we have full power to 
judge our son according to our pleasure, yet, as men are 
liable to prejudice in their own affairs, and as the most emi- 
nent physicians rely not on their own judgment concerning 
themselves, but call in the advice of others, so we, under the 
awful fear of displeasing God, make knowm our disease, and 
apply to you for a cure. As I have promised pai-don to my 
son in case he should declare to me the truth, and though he 
has forfeited this promise by concealing his rebellious designs, 
yet, that we may not swerve from our obligation, we pray 
you to consider this affair with seriousness, and report what 
punishment he deserves without favor or partiality either to 
him or me. Let not the reflection that you are passing sen- 
tence on the son of your prince have any influence on you, 
but administer justice without respect of persons. Destroy 



TKIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS. 357 

not your own souls and mine, by doing any thing which may 
injure our country or upbraid our consciences in the great and 
terrible day of judgment." 

The evidence adduced against the young prince, from hia 
own confession, and the depositions which had been taken, 
were very carefully considered, nearly a month being oc- 
cupied in the solemnities of deliberation. A verdict was 
finally rendered in the form of a report to the emperor. It 
was a long, carefully-worded document, containing a state- 
ment of the facts which the evidence substantiated against 
the culprit. The conclusion w^as as follows : 

" It is evident, from the whole conduct of the son of the 
tzar, that he intended to take the crown from the head of his 
father and place it upon his own, not only by a civil insurrec- 
tion, but by the assistance of a foreign army which he had 
actually requested. He has therefore rendered himself un- 
worthy of the clemency promised by the emperor ; and, since 
all laws, divine, ecclesiastical, civil and military, condemn to 
death, without mercy, not only those who attempt rebellion 
against their sovereign, but those who are plotting such at- 
tempts, what shall be our judgment of one who has conspired 
for the commission of a crime almost unparalleled in history — 
the assassination of his sovereign, who was his own father, a 
father of great indulgence, who reared his son from the cra- 
dle with more than paternal tenderness, who, with incredible 
pains, strove to educate him for government, and to qualify 
him for the succession to so great an empire ? How much 
more imperatively does such a crime merit death. 

"It is therefore with hearts full of affliction, and eyes 
streaming with tears, that we, as subjects and servants, pro- 
nounce this sentence against the son of our most precious sov- 
ereign lord, the tzar. Nevertheless, it being his pleasure that 
we should act in this capacity, we, by these presents, declare 
our real opinion, and pronounce this sentence of condemnation 
"»vith a pure conscience as we hope to answer at the tribunal 



358 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

of Almighty God. We submit, however, this sentence to tho 
sovereign will and revisal of his imperial majesty, our most 
merciful sovereisfn." 

This sentence was signed by all the members of the court, 
one hundred and eighty in number; and on the 6th of July it 
was read to the guilty prince in the castle where he was kept 
confined. The miserable young man, enfeebled in body and 
mind by debaucheries, was so overwhelmed with terror, as his 
death warrant was read, that he was thrown into convulsions. 
All the night long fit succeeded fit, as, delirious with woe, he 
moaned upon his bed. In the morning a messenger was dis- 
patched to the tzar to inform him that his son was seriously 
sick ; in an hour another messenger was sent stating that he 
was very dangerously sick ; and soon a third messenger was 
dispatched with the intelligence that Alexis could not survive 
the day, and was very anxious to see his father. Peter, scarce 
less wretched than his miserable son, hastened to his room. 
The dying young man, at the sight of his father, burst into 
tears, confessed all his crimes, and begged his father's blessing 
in this hour of death. Tears coursed down the cheeks of the 
stern emperor, and he addressed his dying child in terms so 
pathetic, and so fervently implored God's pardon for him, that 
the stoutest hearts were moved and loud sobbings filled the 
room. 

It was midday of the 7th of July, 1718. The prince was 
confined in a large chamber of a stone castle, which was at the 
same time a palace and a fortress. There lay upon the couch 
the dying Alexis, bloated by the excesses of a life of utter pol- 
lution, yet pale and haggard with terror and woe. The iron- 
hearted father, whose soul this sublime tragedy had melted, 
sat at his side weeping like a child. The guards who stood at 
the door, the nobles and ecclesiastics who had accompanied 
the emperor, were all unmanned, many sobbing aloud, over- 
whelmed by emotions utterly uncontrollable. This scene 
stamps the impress of almost celestial greatness upon the 



TEIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS. 359 

soul of the tzar. He knew his son's weakness, incompetency 
and utter depravity, and even in that hour of agony his spirit 
did not bend, and he would not sacrifice the happiness of 
eighteen millions of people through parental tenderness for 
his debauched and ruined child. 

About six o'clock in the evening the wretched Alexis 
breathed his last, and passed from the tribunals of earth to 
the judgment-seat of God. The emperor immediately seemed 
to banish from his mind every remembrance of his crimes, and 
his funeral was attended with all the customary demonstra- 
tions of affection and respect. Peter, fully aware that this 
most momentous event of his life would be severely criticised 
throughout the world, sent a statement of the facts to all the 
courts of Europe. In his letter, which accompanied these 
statements, he says : 

" While we were debating in our mind between the nat- 
ural emotions of paternal clemency on one side, and the 
regard we ought to pay to the preservation and the future 
security of our kingdom on the other, and pondering what 
resolution to take in an affair of so great difficuly and impor- 
tance, it pleased the Almighty God, by his especial will and 
his just judgment, and by his mercy to deliver us out of that 
embarrassment, and to save our family and kingdom from 
the shame and the dangers by abridging the life of our said 
son Alexis, after an illness with which he was seized as soon 
as he had heard the sentence of death pronounced against 
him. 

'^ That illness appeared at first like an apoplexy ; but he 
afterwards recovered his senses and received the holy sacra- 
ments ; and having desired to see us, we went to him im- 
mediately, with all our counselors and senators ; and then he 
acknowledged and sincerely confessed all his said faults and 
crimes, committed against us, with tears and all the marks 
of a true penitent, and begged our pardon, which, accordiiif^ 
to Christian and paternal duty, we granted him ; after which 



360 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

on the Yth of July, at six in the evening, he surrendered his 
soul to God." 

The tzar endeavored to efface from his memory these 
tragic scenes by consecrating himself, with new energy, to 
the promotion of the interests of Russia. Utterly despising 
all luxurious indulgence, he lived upon coarse fare, occupied 
plainly-furnished rooms, dressed in the extreme of simplicity 
and devoted himself to daily toil with diligence, which no 
mechanic or peasant in the realm could surpass. The war 
still continued with Sweden. On the night of the 29th of 
I^ovember, of this year, 1718, the madman Charles XII. was 
instantly killed by a cannon ball which carried away his head 
as he was leaning upon a parapet, in the siege of Frederic- 
shall in Norway. The death of this indomitable warrior quite 
changed the aspect of European affairs. New combinations 
of armies arose and new labyrinths of intrigue were woven, 
and for several years wars, with their usual successes and dis- 
asters, continued to impoverish and depopulate the nations of 
Europe. At length the tzar effected a peace with Sweden, 
that kingdom surrendering to him the large and important 
provinces of Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria and Carelia. This 
was an immense acquisition for Russia. 

With the utmost vigilance the tzar watched the adminis- 
tration of all the internal affairs of his empire, punishing 
fraud, wherever found, with unrelenting severity. The en- 
terprise which now, above all others, engaged his attention, 
was to open direct communication, by means of canals, be- 
tween St. Petersburg and the Caspian Sea. The most skill- 
ful European engineers were employed upon this vast under- 
taking, by which the waters of Lake Ladoga were to flow 
into the Volga, so that the shores of the Baltic and distant 
Persia might be united in maritime commerce. The sacred 
Scriptures were also, by command of the emperor, translated 
into the Russian language and widely disseminated throughout 
the empire. The Russian merchants were continually receiving 



DEATH OF THE TZAB. 361 

insults, being plundered and often massacred by the barbaric 
tribes on the shores of the Caspian. Peter fitted out a grand 
expedition from Astrachan for their chastisement, and went 
himself to that distant city to superintend the important oper- 
ations. A war of twelve months brought those tribes into 
subjection, and extended the Russian dominion over vast and 
indefinite regions there. 

Catharine, whom he seemed to love with all the fervor of 
youth, accompanied him on this expedition. Returning to 
St. Petersburg in 1724, Peter resolved to accomplish a design 
which he for some time had meditated, of placing the imperial 
crown upon the brow of his beloved wife. Their infant son 
had died. Their grandson, Peter, the son of Alexis, was still 
but a child, and the failing health of the tzar admonished him 
that he had not many years to live. Reposing great confi- 
dence in the goodness of Catharine and in the wisdom of 
those counselors whom, wdth his advice, she would select, he 
resolved to transmit the scepter, at his death, to her. In prep- 
aration for this event, Catharine was crowned Empress on 
the 18th of May, 1724, with all possible pomp. 

The city of Petersburg had now become one of the most 
important capitals of Europe. Peter was not only the founder 
of this city, but, in a great measure, the architect. An ob- 
servatory for astronomical purposes was reared, on the model 
of that in Paris. A valuable library was in the rapid progress 
of collection, and there were several cabinets formed, filled 
with the choicest treasures of nature and art. There were 
now in Russia a sufficient number of men of genius and of 
high literary and scientific attainment to form an academy of 
the arts and sciences, the rules and institutes of which the 
emperor drew up with his own hand. 

While incessantly engaged in these arduous operations, 
the emperor was seized with a painful and dangerous sickness 
— a strangury — which confined him to his room for four 
months. Feeling a little better one day, he ordered bis 

16 



362 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

yacht to be brought up to the Neva, opposite his palace, 
and embarked to visit some of his works on Lake Ladoga. 
His physicians, vainly remonstrating against it, accompanied 
him. It was the middle of October. The weather contin- 
uing fine, the emperor remained upon the water, visiting his 
works upon the shore of the lake and of the Gulf of Finland, 
until the 5th of November. The exposures of the voyage 
proved too much for him, and he returned to Petersburg in a 
state of debility and pain which excited the greatest appre- 
hensions. 

The disease made rapid progress. The mind of the em- 
peror, as he approached the dying hour, was clouded, and, 
with the inarticulate mutterings of delirium, he turned to and 
fro, restless, upon his bed. His devoted wife, for three days 
and three nights, did not leave his side, and, on the 28th of 
January, 1725, at four o'clock in the afternoon, he breathed 
his last, in her arms. 

Before the dethronement of his reason, the tzar had as- 
sembled around his bed the chief dignitaries of the empire, 
and had requested them, as soon as he should be dead, to 
aclmovvledge the Empress Catharine as their sovereign. He 
even took the precaution to exact from them an oath that 
they would do this. Peter died in the fifty-third year of his 
age. None of the children whom he had by his first wife 
survived him. Both of the sons whom he had by the Em- 
press Catharine were also dead. Two daughters still lived. 
After the Empress Catharine, the next heir to the throne was 
his grandson, Peter, the orphan child of the guilty Alexis. 

Immediately upon the death of the emperor, the senate 
assembled and unanimously declared Catharine Empress of 
Russia. In a body, they waited upon Catharine with this 
announcement, and were presented to her by Prince Menzi- 
koff. The mourning for the tzar was universal and heartfelt. 
The remains were conveyed to the tomb with all the solemni- 
ties becoming the burial of one of the greatest monarchs earth" 



DEATH OP THE TZAE. 363 

has ever known. Over his remains the empress erected a 
monument sculptured by the most accomplished artists of 
Italy, containing the following inscription : 

HERE LIETH 
ALL THAT COULD DIE OP A MAN ntMOETAL, 

PETER ALEXOUITZ; 

IT IS ALMOST SUPERFLUOUS TO ADD 

GREAT EMPEROR OP RUSSIA; 

A TITLE 

WHICH, INSTEAD OF ADDING TO HIS GLOET, 

BECAME GLORIOUS BY HIS WEARD^G IT. 

LET ANTIQUITY BE DUMB, 

NOE BOAST HER ALEXANDER OR HER C-JISAR. 

HOW EASY WAS VICTORY 

TO LEADERS WHO WERE FOLLOWED BY HEROES, 

AND WHOSE SOLDIERS FELT A NOBLE DISDAIN 

AT BEING THOUGHT LESS VIGILANt THAN THEIR GENEEALSl 

BUT HE, 
WHO IN THIS PLACE FIRST. KNEW REST, 
FOUND SUBJECTS BASE AND INACTIVE, 
UNWARLIKE, UNLEARNED, UNTRACTABLE, 
KEITHEE COVETOUS OF FAME NOR FEARLESS OP DANGEE— 
CREATURES WITH THE NAMES OF MEN, 
BUT WITH QUALITIES RATHER BRUTAL THAN RATIONAL 
YET EVEN THESE 
HE POLISHED FROM THEIR NATIVE RUGGEDNESS, 
AND, BREAKING OUT LIKE A NEW SUN 
TO ILLUMINB THE MINDS OF A PEOPLE, 
DISPELLED THEIR NIGHT OP HEREDITARY DARKNESS, 
AND, BY FORCE OP HIS INVINCIBLE INFLUENCE, 
TAUGHT THEM TO CONQUER 
EVEN THE CONQUERORS OP GERMANY. 
OTHER PEINCES HAVE COMMANDED VICTORIOUS ARMIES' 
THIS COMMANDER CREATED THEM. 
EXULT, NATURE I FOR THINE WAS THIS PRODIGY. 
BLUSH, O ART I AT A HERO WHO OWED THEE NOTHINa; 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE REIGNS OF CATHARINE I.. ANNE, THE INFANT lYAN 

AND ELIZABETH. 

From I'? 25 to 1*162. 

Eneegetic Eeign of Cathaeine. — Heb Sudden Death.— Brief Eeign op Petek II. — 
Difficulties of Hekeditaey Succession. — A Eepublic ContEiMplated. — Anne, 
Daughter of Ivan. — The Infant Ivan Proclaimed King — His Terrible Doom. 
— Elizabeth, Daughtrr of Peter the Great Enthroned. — Chaeacter of Eliza- 
beth. — Alliance with Maria Theresa. — Wars with Prussia.— Great Eeverses 
OP Frederic of Prussia. — Desperate Condition op Feedebio. — Death of Eliza- 
beth. — Succession of Petee III. 

THE new empress, Catharine I., was already exceedingly- 
popular, and she rose rapidly in public esteem by the 
wisdom and vigor of her administration. Early in June her 
eldest daughter, Anne, was married with much pomp to the 
Duke of Holstein. It was a great novelty to the Russians to 
see a woman upon the throne ; and the neighboring States 
seemed inspired with courage to commence encroachments, 
thinking that they had but little to apprehend from the feeble 
arm of a queen. Poland, Sweden and Denmark were all ani- 
mated with the hope that the time had now come in which 
they could recover those portions of territory which, during 
past wars, had been wrested from them by Russia, 

Catharine was fully aware of the dangers thus impending, 
and adopted such vigorous measures for augmenting the army 
and the fleet as speedily to dispel the illusion. Catharine 
vigorously prosecuted the measures her husband had intro- 
duced for the promotion of the civilization and enlightenment 
of her subjects. She took great care of the young prince 
Peter, son of the deceased Alexis, and endeavored in all ways 



THE REIGN OF CATHAEINE I. 365 

to educate him so that he might be worthy to succeed her 
upon the throne. This young man, the grandson of Peter the 
Great, was the only prince in whose veins flowed the blood 
of the tzars. 

The academy of sciences at St. Petersburg, which Peter 
had founded, was sedulously fostered by Catharine. The 
health of the empress was feeble when she ascended the throne, 
and it rapidly declined. She, however, continued to apply 
herself with great assiduity to public affairs until the middle 
of April, when she was obliged to take her bed. There is no 
" royal road" to death. Alter four weeks of suffering and all 
the humbling concomitants of disease and approaching dis- 
solution, the empress breathed her last at nine o'clock in the 
evening of the 16th of May, 1727, after a reign of but little 
more than two years, and in the forty-second year of her age. 

Upon her death-bed Catharine declared Peter II., the son 
of Alexis, her successor ; and as he was but twelve years of 
age, a regency was established during his minority. Menzi- 
koff, however, the illustrious favorite of Peter the Great, who 
had been appointed by Catharine generalissimo of all the ar- 
mies both by land and sea, attained such supremacy that he 
was in reality sovereign of the empire. During the reign of 
Catharine Russia presented the extraordinary spectacle of one 
of the most powerful and aristocratic kingdoms on the globe 
governed by an empress whose origin was that of a nameless 
girl found weeping in the streets of a sacked town — while 
there rode, at the head of the armies of the empire, towering 
above grand dukes and princes of the blood, the son of apeas- 
sant, who had passed his childhood the apprentice of a pastry 
cook, selling cakes in the streets of Moscow. Such changes 
would have been extraordinary at any period of time and in 
any quarter of the world ; but that they should have occurred 
in Russia, where for ages so haughty an aristocracy had dom- 
inated, seems almost miraculous. Meuzikoff, elated by the 
power which the minority of the king gave him, assumed such 



366. THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

airs as to excite the most bitter spirit of hostility among the 
nobles. They succeeded in working his ruin ; and the boy 
emperor banished him to Siberia and confiscated his immense 
estates. The blow was fatal. Sinking into the most profound 
melancholy, Menzikoff lingered for a few months in the dreary 
region of his exile, and died in 1729. Peter the Second did 
not long survive him. But little more than two years elapsed 
after the death of Catharine, when he, being then a lad of but 
fourteen years of age, was seized with the small-pox and died 
the 19th of January, 1730. One daughter of Peter the Great 
and of Catharine still survived. 

Some of the principal of the nobility, seeing how many 
diihculties attended hereditary succession, which at one time 
placed the crown upon the brow of a babe in the cradle, 
again upon a semi-idiot, and again upon a bloated and infa- 
mous debauchee, conferred upon the subject of changing the 
government into a republic. But Russia was not prepared for 
a reform so sudden and so vast. After much debate it was 
decided to offer the crown to Anne, Duchess of Courland, 
who was second daughter of the imbecile Ivan, who, for a 
short time, had nominally occupied the throne, associated with 
his brother Peter the Great. She had an elder sister, Catha- 
rine, who was married to the Duke of Mecklenburg. So far 
as the right of birth was concerned, Catharine was first en- 
titled to the succession. But as the Duke of Mecklenburg, 
whose grand duchy bordered upon the Baltic, and which was 
equal to about one half the State of Massachusetts, was en- 
gaged in a kind of civil war with his nobles, it was there- 
fore thought best to pass her by, lest the empire should 
become involved in the strife in which her husband was en- 
gaged. As Ivan was the elder brother, it was thought that 
liis daughters should have the precedence over those of 
Peter. 

Another consideration also influenced the nobles who took 
the lead in selecting Anne. They thought that she was a wo- 



THE EEIGN OF ANNE. 367 

man whom they could more easily control than Catharine. 
These nobles accordingly framed a new constitution for the em- 
pire, limiting the authority of the queen to suit their purposes. 
But Anne was no sooner seated upon the throne, than she 
grasped the scepter with vigor which astounded all. She 
banished the nobles who had interfered with the royal prerog- 
atives, and canceled all the limitations they had made. She 
selected a very able ministry, and gave the command of her 
armies to the most experienced generals. While sagacity and 
efficiency marked her short administration, and Russia con- 
tinued to expand and prosper, no events of special importance 
occurred. She united her armies with those of the Emperor 
of Germany in resisting the encroachments of France. She 
waged successful war against the Turks, who had attempted 
to recover Azof. In this war, the Crimean Tartars were 
crushed, and Russian influence crowded its way into the im- 
mense Crimean peninsula. The energies of Anne caused 
Russia to be respected throughout Europe. 

As the empress had no children, she sent for her niece and 
namesake, Anne, daughter of her elder sister, Catharine, 
Duchess of Mecklenburg, and married her to one of the most 
distinguished nobles of her court, resolved to call the issue of 
this marriage to the succession. On the 12th of August, 
1740, this princess was delivered of a son, who was named 
Ivan. The empress immediately pronounced him her succes- 
sor, placing him under the guardianship of his parents. The 
health of the empress was at this time rapidly failing, and it 
was evident to all that her death was not far distant. In an- 
ticipation of death, she appointed one of her favorites, John 
Ernestus Biron, regent, during the minority of the prince. 
Baron Osterman, high chancellor of Russia, had the rank of 
prime minister, and Count Munich, a soldier of distinguished 
reputation, was placed in the command of the armies, with 
the title of field marshal. These were the last administrative 
acts of Anne. The king of terrors came with his inevitable 



368 THE EMPIKE OF EUSSIA. 

summons. After a few weeks of languor and suffering, the 
queen expired in October, 1740. 

A babe, two months old, was now Emperor of Russia. 
The senate immediately met and acknowledged the legitimacy 
of his claims. The foreign embassadors presented to him 
their credentials, and the Marquis of Chetardie, the French 
minister, reverentially approaching the cradle, made the im- 
peiidlly majestic baby a congratulatory speech, addressing hjm 
as Ivan v.. Emperor of all the Kussias, and assuring him of 
the friendship of Louis XY., sovereign of France. 

The regent, as was usually the case, arrogating authority 
and splendor, soon became excessively unpopular, and a con- 
spiracy of the nobles was formed for his overthrow. On the 
night of the 17th of K^ovember the conspirators met in the 
palace of the grand duchess, Anne, mother of the infant 
emperor, unanimously named her regent of the empire, ar- 
rested Biron, and condemned him to death, which sentence 
was subsequently commuted to Siberian exile. 

Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter, was now thirty-eight 
years of age. Though very beautiful, she was unmarried, 
and resided in the palace in a state of splendid captivity. A 
party now arose who secretly conspired to overthrow the 
regency of Anne, and to depose the infant Ivan and place 
Elizabeth upon the throne. The plot being fully matured, on 
the night of the 5th of December a body of armed men re- 
paired to the palace, where they met Elizabeth, who was 
ready to receive them, and marched, with her at their head, 
to the barracks, where she was enthusiastically received by 
the soldiers. The spirit of her father seemed at once to 
inspire her soul. With a voice of authority, as if born to 
command, she ordered the regiments to march to different 
quarters of the city and to seize all the prominent officers of 
the government. Then leading, herself, a regiment to the 
palace, she took possession of the infant emperor and of his 
mother, the regent. They were held in captivity, though, at 



THE KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 369 

first, treated with all the consideration which became their 
birth. 

This revolution was accepted by the people with the loud- 
est demonstrations of joy. The memory of Peter the Great 
was enshrined in every heart, and all exulted in placing the 
crown upon his daughter's brow. The next morning, at the 
head of the royal guards and all the other troops of the 
nietropohs, Elizabeth was proclaimed Empress of Russia. 
In one week from this time, the deposed infant emperor, 
Ivan, who was then thirteen months old, was sent, with his 
parents, from Petersburg to Riga, where they were for a 
long time detained in a castle as prisoners. Two efforts 
which they made for escape were frustrated. 

This conspiracy, which was carried to so successful a result, 
was mainly founded in the hostility with which the Russians 
regarded the foreigners who had been so freely introduced to 
the empire by Peter the Great, and who occupied so many 
of the most important posts in the State. Thus the succession 
of Elizabeth was, in fact, a counter revolution, arresting the 
progress of reform and moving Russia back again toward the 
ancient barbarism. But Elizabeth soon expended her par- 
oxysm of energy, and surrendered herself to luxury and to 
sensual indulgence unsurpassed by any debauchee who ever 
occupied a throne. Jealous of sharing her power, she refused 
to take a husband, though many guilty favorites were received 
to her utmost intimacy. 

The doom of the deposed Ivan and his parents was sad, 
indeed. They were removed for safe keeping to an island in 
the White Sea, fifty miles beyond Archangel, a region as 
desolate as the imagination can well conceive. Here, after a 
year of captivity, the infant Ivan was torn from his mother 
and removed to the monastery of Oranienburg, where he was 
brought up in the utmost seclusion, not being allowed to 
learn either to read or write. The bereaved mother, Anne, 
lingered a couple of yeai's mitil she wept away her life, and 

16* 



STO THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

found the repose of the grave in 1746. Her husband survived 
thirty years longer, and died in prison in 1775. It was an 
awful doom for one who had committed no crime. The 
whole course of history proves that in this life we see but the 
commencement of a divine government, and that " after death 
Cometh the judgment." 

A humane monk, taking pity upon the unfortunate little 
Ivan, attempted to escape with him. He had reached Smo- 
lensk, when he was arrested. The unhappy prince was then 
conveyed to the castle of Schlusselburg, where he was im- 
mersed in a dungeon which no ray of the sun could ever pen- 
etrate. A single lamp burning in his cell only revealed its 
horrors. The prince could not distinguish day from night, 
and had no means of computing the passage of the hours. 
Food was left in his cell, and the attendants, who occasionally 
entered, were prohibited from holding any conversation with 
the child. This treatment, absolutely infernal, soon reduced 
the innocent prince to a state almost of idiocy. 

Twice Elizabeth ordered him to be brought to Petersburg, 
where she conversed with him without letting him know who 
she was ; but she did nothing to alleviate his horrible doom. 
After the death of Elizabeth, her successor, Peter III., made 
Ivan a visit, without making himself known. Touched with 
such an aspect of misery, he ordered an apartment to be built 
in an angle of the fortress, for Ivan, who had now attained 
the age of manhood, where he could enjoy air and light. The 
sudden death of Peter defeated this purpose, and Ivan was 
left in his misery. Still weary years passed away while the 
prince, dead to himself as well as to the world, remained 
breathing in his tomb. Catharine II., after her accession to 
the throne, called to see Ivan. She thus describes her visit : 

"After we had ascended the throne, and offered up to 
Heaven our just thanksgivings, the first object that employed 
our thoughts, in consequence of that humanity which is nat- 
ural to us, was the unhappy'- situation of that prince, who 



THE EEIGX OF ELIZABETH. 371 

was dethroned by divine Providence, and had been unfortu- 
nate ever since liis birth ; and we formed the resolution of 
alleviating his misfortunes as far as possible. 

" We immediately made a visit to him in order to judge 
of his understanding and talents, and to procure him a situa- 
tion suitable to his character and education. But how great 
was our surprise to find, that in addition to a defect in his ut- 
terance, which rendered it difficult for him to speak, and still 
more difficult to be understood, we observed an almost total 
deprivation of sense and reason. Those who accompanied us, 
during this interview, saw how much our heart suffered at 
the contemplation of an object so fitted to excite compassion ; 
they were also convinced that the only measure we could take 
to succor the unfortunate prince was to leave him where we 
found him, and to procure him all the comforts and conven- 
iences his situation would admit of. We accordingly gave 
our orders for this purpose, though the state he was in pro- 
's' ented his perceiving the marks of our humanity or being 
sensible of our attention and care ; for he knew nobody, 
could not distinguish between good and evil, nor did he 
know the use that might be made of reading, to pass the 
time with less weariness and disgust. On the contrary, he 
sought pleasure in objects that discovered with sufficient 
evidence the disorder of his imaoination." 

Soon after this poor Ivan was cruelly assassinated. An 
officer in the Russian army, named Mirovitch, conceived an 
absurd plan of liberating Ivan from his captivity, restoring 
him to the throne, and consigning Catharine 11. to the dun- 
geon the prince had so long inhabited. Mirovitch had com- 
mand of the garrison at Schlusselburg, where Ivan was im- 
prisoned. Taking advantage of the absence of the empress, 
on a journey to Livonia, he proceeded to the castle, with a 
few soldiers whose cooperation he had secured through the 
influence of brandy and promises, knocked down the com- 
mandant of the fortress with the butt end of a musket, and 



372 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

ordered the officers who had command of the prisoner to 
bring him to them. These officers had received the secret 
injunction that should the rescue of the prince ever be at- 
tempted, they were to put him to death rather than permit 
him to be carried off. They accordingly entered his cell, 
and though the helpless captive made the most desperate 
resistance, they speedily cut him down with their swords. 

History has few narratives so extraordinary as the fate of 
Ivan. A forced marriage was arranged that a child might be 
generated to inherit the Russian throne. When this child 
was but a few days old he was declared emperor of all the 
Russias, and received the congratulations of the foreign em- 
bassadors. When thirteen months of age he was deposed, 
and for the crime of being a king, was thrown into captivity. 
To prevent others from using him as the instrument of their 
purposes, he was thrown into a dungeon, and excluded from 
all human intercourse, so that like a deaf child he could not 
even acquire the power of speech. For him there was neither 
clouds nor sunshine, day nor night, summer nor winter. He 
had no employment, no amusement, no food for thought, ab- 
solutely nothing to mark the passage of the weary hours. 
The mind became paralyzed and almost idiotic by such enor- 
mous woe. Such was his doom for twenty-four years. He 
was born in 1740, and assassinated under the reign of Catha- 
rine n., in 1764. The father of Ivan remained in prison 
eleven years longer until he died. 

From this tragedy let us turn back to the reign of Eliza- 
beth. It was the great object of this princess to undo all 
that her illustrious father had done, to roll back all the re- 
forms he had commenced, and to restore to the empire its 
ancient usages and prejudices. The hostility to foreigners 
became so bitter, that the queen's guard formed a conspir- 
acy for a general massacre, which should sweep them all from 
the empire. Elizabeth, conscious of the horror such an act 
would inspire throughout Europe, was greatly alarmed, and 



THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 373 

was compelled to issue a proclamation in defense of their 
lives. 

" The empress," she said in this proclamation, " can never 
forget how much foreigners have contributed to the prosperity 
of Russia. And though her subjects will at all times enjoy her 
favors in preference to foreigners^ yet the foreigners in her 
service are as dear to her as her own subjects, and may rely 
on her protection." 

In the mean time, Elizabeth was prosecuting with great 
vigor the hereditary war with Sweden. Russia was constantly 
gaining in this conflict, and at length the Swedes purchased 
peace by surrendering to the Russians extensive territories in 
Finland. The favor of Russia was still more efl*ectually pur- 
chased by the Swedes choosing for their king, Adolpus Fred- 
eric, Duke of the Russian province of Holstein, and kinsman 
of Elizabeth. The boundaries of Russia were thus enlarged, 
and Sweden became almost a tributary province of the gigan- 
tic empire. 

Maria Theresa was now Empress of Austria, and she suc- 
ceeded in enlisting the cooperation of Elizabeth in her unre- 
lenting warfare with Frederic of Prussia. Personal hostility 
also exasperated Elizabeth against the Prussian monarch, for 
in some of his writings he had spoken disparagingly of the 
humble birth of Elizabeth's motlier, Catharine, the wife of 
Peter the First ; and a still more unpardonable offense he had 
committed, when, flushed with wine, at a table where the 
Russian embassador was present, he had indulged in wiiti- 
cij^ms in reference to the notorious gallantries of the empress. 
A woman who could plunge into the wildest excesses of li- 
centiousness, still had sensibility enough to resent the taunts 
of the royal philosopher. In 1*753, Elizabeth and Maria 
Theresa entered into an agreement to resist all further aitg- 
mentatio7i of the Prussian power. In the bloody Seven 
Years' War between Frederic and Maria Theresa, the heart 
of Elizabeth was always with the Austrian queen, and for 



374 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

five of those years their armies fought side by side. In the 
year 1759, EHzabeth sent an army of one hundred thousand 
men into Prussia. They committed every outrage which 
fiends could perpetrate ; and though victorious over tlie 
armies of Frederic, they rendered the country so utterly 
desolate, that through famine they were compelled to retreat. 
Burning villages and mangled corpses marked their path. 

The next year, 1758, another Russian army invaded Prus- 
sia, overran nearly the whole kingdom, and captured Konigs- 
burg. The victorious Russians thinking that all of Prussia 
was to be annexed to their dominions, began to treat the 
Prussians tenderly and as countrymen. An order was read 
from the churches, that if any Prussian had cause of com- 
plaint against any Russian, he should present it at the mili- 
tary chancery at Konigsburg, where he would infallibly have 
redress. The inhabitants of the conquered realm were all 
obliged to swear fealty to the Empress of Russia. The 
Prussian army was at this time in Silesia, struggling against 
the troops of Maria Theresa. The warlike Frederic soon re- 
turned at the head of his indomitable hosts, and attacking 
the Russians about six miles from Kustrin, defeated them in 
one of the most bloody battles on record, and drove the 
shattered battalions, humiliated and bleeding, out of the 
territory. 

The summer of 1759 again found the Russian troops spread 
over the Prussian territory. In great force the two hostile 
armies soon met on the banks of the Oder. The Russians, 
posted upon a line of commanding heights, numbered seventy 
thousand. Frederic fiercely assailed them through the most 
formidable disadvantages, with but thirty thousand men. The 
slaughter of the Prussians was fearful, and Frederic, after 
losing nearly eight thousand of his best troops in killed and 
wounded and prisoners, sullenly retired. The Russian troops 
were now strengthened by a reinforcement of twelve thousand 
of the choicest of the Austrian cavalry, and still presenting, 



THE EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 375 

notwithstanding their losses, a solid front of ninety thousand 
men. Frederic, bringing every nerve into action, succeeded 
in collecting and bringing again into the field fifty thousand 
troops.* Notwithstanding the disparity in numbers, it seemed 
absolutely necessary that the King of Prussia should fight, for 
the richest nart of his dominions was in the hands of the 
allied Prussians and Austrians, and Berlin was menaced. The 
field of battle was on the banks of the Oder, near Frankfort. 

On the 12th of June, 1759, at two o'clock in the morning, 
the King of Prussia formed his troops in battle array, behind 
a forest which concealed his movements from the enemy. The 
battle was commenced with a tiercie cannonade ; and in the 
midst of the thunderings and carnage of this tempest of war, 
solid columns emerged from the ranks of the Prussians and 
pierced the Russian lines. The attack was too impetuous to 
be resisted. From post to post the Prussians advanced, driv- 
ing the foe before them, and covering the ground with the 
slain. For six hours of almost unparalleled slaughter the vic- 
tory was with the Prussians. Seventy-two pieces of cannon fell 
into the hands of the victors, and at every point the Russians 
were retreating. Frederic, in his exultation, scribbled a note 
to the empress, upon the field of battle, with the pommel of 
his saddle for a tablet, and dispatched it to her by a courier. 
It was as follows : 

*' Madam : we have beat the Russians from their entrench- 
ments. In two hours expect to hear of a glorious victory." 

But in less than two hours the tide of victory turned. The 
day was one of excessive heat. An unclouded sun poured its 
burning rays upon the field, and at midday the troops and the 
horses, having been engaged for six hours in one of the se- 
verest actions which was ever known, were utterly beat out 
and fainting with exhaustion. Just then the whole body of 
the Russian and Austrian cavalry, some fourteen thousand 

* Some authorities give the Russians eighty thousand and the Prussians 
forty thousand. 



376 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

strong, which thus far liad remained inactive, came rushing 
upon the phiiu as witli the roar and the sweep of the whirl- 
wind. The ibe lell before them as the withered grass before 
the prairie lire. Frederic was astounded by this sudden re- 
verse, and in the anguish of his spirit phniged into the thickest 
of the conliict. Two horses were shot beneath him. His 
clotlies were riddled with balls. Another courier was dis- 
patched to the empress from the sanguinary Held, in the hot- 
test speed. The note he bore was as follows : 

" liemove from Berlin with the royal family. Let the 
archives be carried to Potsdam, and the capital make condi- 
tions with the enemy." 

As night approached, Frederic assembled the fragments 
of his army, exliausted and bleeding, upon some heights, and 
threw up redoubts for their protection. Twenty thousand of 
his troops were left upon the tield or in the hands of the enemy. 
Every cannon he had was taken. Scarcely a general or an 
inferior officer escaped unwounded, and a large number of his 
most valuable officers were slain. It was an awful defeat and 
an awful slauixhter. 

Fortunately lor P^-ederic the losses of the Russians had also 
been so terrible that they' did not venture to pursue the foe. 
Early the next morning the Prussian king crossed the Oder; 
and the Russians, encumbered with the thousands of their 
own mutilated and dying troops, thought it not prudent to 
march upon Berlin. The war still raged furiously, the allies 
being inspirited by hope and Frederic by despair. At length 
the affairs of Prussia became quite hopeless, and the Prussian 
monarch was in a position from which no earthly energy or sa- 
gacity could extricate him. Tiie Russians and Austrians, in re- 
sistless numbers, were spread over all ids provinces excepting 
Saxony, where the great Fiederic was entirely hemmed up. 

The Prussian king was fully conscious of the desperation 
of his affairs, and, though one of the most stoical and stern 
of men, he experienced the acutest anguish. For hours he 



THE EEIGN OF ELIZA UET II. 3*77 

paced the floor of his tent, absorbed in thought, seldom ex- 
changing a word with his generals, who stood silently by, 
having no word to utter of counsel or encouragement. Just 
then God mysteriously interposed and saved Prussia from dis- 
memberment, and the name of her monarch from ignominy. 
The Empress of Russia had been for some time in failing 
health, and the year 1762 had but just dawned, when the en- 
rapturing tidings were conveyed to the camp of the despair- 
ing Prussians that Elizabeth was dead. This event dispelled 
midnight gloom and caused the sun to shine brightly upon the 
Prussian fortunes. 

The nephew of the empress, Peter III., who succeeded her 
on her throne, had long expressed his warm admiration of 
Frederic of Prussia, had visited his court at Berlin, where he 
was received with the most flattering attentions, and had en- 
throned the warlike Frederic in his heart as the model of a 
hero. He had even, during the war, secretly written letters 
to Frederic expressive of his admiration, and had communi- 
cated to him secrets of the Russian cabinet and their plans of 
operation. The elevation of Peter III. to the throne was the 
signal, not only for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from 
the Austrian alliance, but for the direct marching of those 
troops as allies into the camp of the Prussians. Thus sudden 
are the mutations of war ; thus inexplicable are the combina- 
tions of destiny. 

Elizabeth died in the fifty-second year of her age, after a 
reign of twenty years. She was during her whole reign mainly 
devoted to sensual pleasure, drinking intoxicating liquors im- 
moderately, and surrendering herself to the most extraordi- 
nary licentiousness. Though ever refusing to recognize the 
claims of marriage, she was the mother of several children, 
and her favorites can not easily be enumerated. Her minis- 
ters managed the affairs of State for her, in obedience to her 
caprices. She seemed to have some chronic disease of the 
humane feelings which induced her to declare that not one of 



378 THE EMPIRE OF KUSblA. 

her subjects should during her reign be doomed to death, 
while at the same time, with the most gentle self compla- 
cency, she could order the tongues of thousands to be torn 
out by the roots, could cut off the nostrils with red hot pin- 
cers, could lop off ears, lips and noses, and could twist the 
arms of her victims behind them, by dislocating them at the 
shoulders. There were tens of thousands of prisoners thus 
horridly mutilated. 

The empress was fond of music, and introduced to Russia 
the opera and the theater. She was as intolerent to the Jews 
as her father had been,i3anishing them all from the country. 
She lived in constant fear of conspiracies and revolutions, and, 
as a desperate safeguard, established a secret inquisitorial 
court to punish all who should express any displeasure with 
the measures of government. Spies and informers of the 
most worthless character filled the land, and multitudes of the 
most virtuous inhabitants of the empire, falsely accused, or 
denounced for a look, a shrug, or a harmless word, were con- 
signed to mutilation more dreadful and to exile more gloomy 
than the grave. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

PETER III. AND HIS BRIDE. 



"From 1128 to 1162. 

Lineage op Peter III. — Chosen by Elizabbth asHee 30ccessoe. — ^The Bbide Chosen 
FOE Petee. — Her Lineage. — The Cottetship. — TnE Marriage. — Autobiography 
ok Catharine. — Anecdotes of Petee. — His Neglect of Cathaeine and His De- 
baucheries. — Amusements of the Epssian Court. — Military Execution of a 
Eat. — Accession of Peter IH. to the Throne. — Supremacy of Cathaeine. — 
Hee Eepl'diation Threatened. — The Conspiracy. — Its Successful Accomplish- 



PETER the Third was grandson of Peter the Great. 
His mother, Anne, the eldest daughter of Peter and 
Catharine, married the Duke of Holstein, who inherited a 
duchy on the eastern shores of the Baltic containing some 
four thousand square miles of territory and about three hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants. Their son and only child, Peter, 
was born in the ducal castle at Kiel, the capital of the duchy, 
in the year 1728. The blood of Peter the Great of Russia, 
and of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden mingled in the veins 
of the young duke, of which fact he was exceedingly proud. 
Soon after the birth of Peter, his mother, Anne, died. The 
father of Peter was son of the eldest sister of Charles XI L, 
and, as such, being the nearest heir, would probably have suc- 
ceeded to the throne of Sweden had not the king's sudden 
death, by a cannon ball, prevented him from designating his 
successor. The widowed father of Peter, thus disappointed 
in his hopes of obtaining the crown of Sweden, which his 
aunt Ulrica, his mother's sister, successfully grasped, lived in 
great retirement. The idea had not occurred to him that the 
crown of imperial Russia could, b}' any chance, descend to his 



380 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

son, and the education of Peter was conducted to qualify him 
to preside over his little patrimonial duchy. 

When young Peter was fourteen years of age, the Em- 
press Elizabeth, his maternal aunt, to the surprise and delight 
of the family, summoned the yonng prince to St. Petersburg, 
intimating her intention to transmit to him her crown. But 
Peter was a thoroughly worthless boy. All ignoble qualities 
seemed to be combined in his nature without any redeeming 
virtues. Elizabeth having thus provided twenty millions of 
people with a sovereign, looked about to find for that sover- 
eign a suitable wife. Upon the banks of the Oder there was 
a small principality^ as it was called, containing some thirteen 
hundred square miles, about the size of the State of Rhode 
Island. Christian Augustus, the prince of this little domain, 
had a daughter, Sophia, a child rather remarkable both for 
beauty and vivacity. She was one year younger than Peter, and 
Elizabeth fixed her choice upon Sophia as the future spouse 
of her nephew. Peter was, at this time, with the empress in 
Moscow, and Sophia was sent for to spend some time in the 
Russian capital before the marriage, that she might become 
acquainted with the Russian language and customs. 

Both of these children had been educated Protestants, but 
they were required to renounce the Lutheran faith and accept 
that of the Greek church. Children as they were, they aid 
this, of course, as readily as they would have changed their 
dresses. With this change of religion Sophia received a new 
name, that of Catharine, and by this name she was ever after- 
ward called. When these children, to whom the government 
of the Russian empire was to be intrusted, first met, Peter 
was fifteen years of age and Catharine fourteen. Catharine 
subsequently commenced a minute journal, an autobiography 
of these her youthful days, which opens vividly to our Vx^w 
the corruptions of the Russian court. Nothing can be more 
wearisome than the life there developed. No thought what- 
ever seemed to be directed by the court to the interests of 



PETER III. AND HIS BRIDE. 381 

the Russian people. They were no more thought of than the 
jaded horses who dragged the chariots of the nobles. It is 
amazing that the indignation of the millions can have slum- 
bered so long. 

Catharine, in her memoirs, naively describes young Peter, 
when she lirst saw him, as " weak, ugly, little and sickly." 
From the age of ten he had been addicted to intoxicating 
drinks. It was the 9th of February, 1744, when Catharine 
was taken to Moscow. Peter, or, as he was then called, the 
grand duke, was quite delighted to see the pretty girl who 
was his destined wife, and began immediately to entertain 
Catharine, as she says, " by informing me that he was in love 
with one of the maids of honor to the empress, and that he 
would have been very glad to have married her, but that he 
was resigned to marry me instead, as his aunt wished it." 

The grand duke had the faculty of making himself exces- 
sively disagreeable to every one around him, and the affianced 
haters were in a constant quarrel. Peter could develop noth- 
ing but stupid malignity. Catharine could wield the weapons 
of keen and cutting sarcasm, which Peter felt as the mule 
feels the lash. Catharine's mother had accompanied her to 
Moscow, but the bridal wardrolse, for a princess, was ex- 
tremely limited. 

" I had arrived," she writes, " in Russia very badly pro- 
vided for. If I had three or four dresses in the world, it was 
the very outside, and this at a court where people changed 
their dress three times a day. A dozen chemises constituted 
the whole of my linen, and I had to use my mother's sheets." 

Soon after Catharine's arrival, the grand duke was taken 
with the small-pox, and his natural ugliness was rendered still 
more revolting by the disfigurement it caused. On the 10th 
ofFebruary, 1745, when Catharine had been one year at Mos- 
cow, the grand duke celebrated his seventeenth birthday. In 
her journal Catharine writes that Peter seldom saw her, and 
was always glad of an} excuse by which he could avoid pay- 



382 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

ing her any attention. Though Catharine cared as little for 
him, still, with girlish ambition, she was eager to marry him, 
as she very frankly records, in consideration of the crown 
which he would place upon her brow, and her womanly 
nature was stung by his neglect. 

" I fully perceived," she writes, " his want of interest, and 
how little I was cared for. My self-esteem and vanity grieved 
m silence ; but I was too proud to complain. I should have 
thought myself degraded had any one shown me a friendship 
which I could have taken for pity. Nevertheless I shed tears 
when alone, then quietly dried them up, and went to romp 
with my maids. 

" I labored, however," writes Catharine, *' to gain the 
affection of every one. Great or small I neglected no one, but 
laid it down to myself as a rule to believe that I stood in need 
of every one, and so to act, in consequence, as to obtain the 
good will of all, and I succeeded in doing so." 

The 21st of August of this year was fixed for the nuptial 
day. Catharine looked forward to it with extreme repug- 
nance. Peter was revolting in bis aspect, disgusting in man- 
ners, a drunkard, and licentious to such a degree that he took 
no pains to conceal his amours. But the crown of Russia was 
in the eyes of Catharine so glittering a prize, though then she 
had not entered her sixteenth year, that she was willing to 
purchase it even at the price of marrying Peter, the only price 
at which it could be obtained. She was fully persuaded that 
Peter, with a feeble constitution and wallowing in debauchery, 
could not live long, and that, at his death, she would be un- 
disputed empress. 

" As the day of our nuptials approached," she writes, " I 
became more and more melancholy. My heart predicted but 
little happiness ; ambition alone sustained me. In my inmost 
soul there was something which led me never to doubt, for a 
single moment, that sooner or later I should become sovereign 
empress of Russia in my own right." 



PETEK III. AND HIS BRIDE. 383 

The marriage was celebrated with much pomp ; but a 
more cold and heartless union was perhaps never solemnized. 
Catharine very distinctly intimates that her husband, who w'as 
as low in his tastes and companionship as he was degraded in 
his vices, lett her at the altar, to return to his more congenial 
harem. 

" My beloved spouse," she writes, " did not trouble him- 
self in the slightest degree about me ; but was constantly with 
his valets, playing at soldiers, exercising them in his room, or 
changing his uniform twenty times a day. I yawned and 
grew weary, having no one to speak to." 

Again she writes, " A fortnight after our marriage he con- 
fessed to me that he was in love with Mademoiselle Carr, 
maid of honor to her imperial majesty. He said that there 
was no comparison between that lady and me. Surely, said I 
to myself, it would be impossible for me not to be wretched 
with such a man as this were I to give w^ay to sentiments of 
tenderness thus requited. I might die of jealousy without 
benefit to any one. I endeavored to master ray feelings so 
as not to be jealous of the man who did not love me. I was 
naturally well-disposed, but I should have required a husband 
who had common sense, which this one had not." 

For amusement, the grand duke played cruelly with dogs 
in his room, pretending to train them, whipping them from 
corner to corner. When tired of this he would scrape exe- 
crably on a violin. He had many little puppet soldiers, whom, 
hour after hour, he would marshal on the floor in mimic war. 
He would dress his own servants and the maids of Catharine 
in masks, and set them dancing, while he would dance with 
them, playing at the same time on the fiddle. 

"With rare perseverance," writes Catharine, "the grand 
duke trained a pack of dogs, and with heavy blows of his whip, 
and cries like those of the huntsmen, made them fly from one 
end to the other of his two rooms, which were all he had. 
Such of the dogs as became tired, or got out of rank, were 



384 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

severely punished, which made them howl still more. On one 
occasion, hearing one of these animals howl piteously and for 
a long time, I opened the door of my bed-room, where I was 
seated, and which adjoined the apartment in which this scene 
was enacted, and saw him holding this dog by the collar, sus- 
pended in the air, while a boy, who was in his service, a Kal- 
muck by birth, held the animal by the tail. It was a poor 
little King Charles spaniel, and the duke was beating him with 
all his might with the heavy handle of a whip. I interceded 
for the poor beast; but this only made him redouble his blows. 
Unable to bear so cruel a scene, I returned to my room with 
tears in my eyes. In general, tears and cries, instead of mov- 
ing the duke to pity, put him in a passion. Pity was a feeling 
that was painful and even insupportable in his mind." 

At one time there was a little hunchback girl in the court, 
upon whom the duke fixed his vagrant desires, and she be- 
came his unconcealed favorite. The duke was ever in the 
habit of talking freely with Catharine about his paramours 
and praising their excellent qualities. 

"Madame Vladisma said to me," writes Catharine, "that 
every one was disgusted to see this little hunchback preferred 
to me. ' It can not be helped,' I said, as the tears started to 
my eyes. I went to bed ; scarcely was I asleep, when the 
grand duke also came to bed. As he was tipsy and knew not 
what he was doing, he spoke to me for the purpose of expati- 
ating on the eminent qualities of his favorite. To check his 
garrulity I pretended to be fast asleep. He spoke still louder 
in order to wake me ; but finding that I slept, he gave me 
two or three rather hard blows in the side with his fist, and 
dropped asleep himself. I wept long and bitterly that night, 
as well on account of the matter itself and the blows he had 
given me, as on that of my general situation, which was, in 
aU respects, as disagreeable as it was wearisome." 

One of the ridiculous and disgraceful amusements of the 
vulgar men and women collected in the court of Elizabeth, 



PETER III. AND HIS BRIDE. 386 

was what was called masquerade balls, in which all the men 
were required to dress as women, and all the women as men, 
and yet no masks were worn. 

" The men," Catharine writes, " wore large whaleboned 
petticoats, with women's gowns, and the head-dresses worn on 
court days, while the women appeared in the court costume 
of men. The men did not like these reversals of their sex, 
and the greater part of them were in the worst possible 
humor on these occasions, because they felt themselves to be 
hideous in such disguises. The women looked like scrubby 
little boys, while the more aged among them had thick short 
legs which were any thing but ornamental. The only woman 
w^ho looked really well, and completely a man, was the em- 
press herself As she was very tall and somewhat powerful, 
male attire suited her wonderfully well. She had the hand- 
somest leg I have ever seen with any man, and her foot was 
admirably proportioned. She danced to perfection, and ev- 
ery thing she did had a special grace, equally so whether she 
dressed as a man or a woman." 

Enervating and degrading pleasure and ambitious or re- 
vengeful wars, engrossed the whole attention of the Russian 
court during the reign of Elizabeth. The welfare of the 
people was not even thought of The following anecdote, 
illustrative of the character of Peter III., is worthy of record 
m the words of Catharine : 

" One day, when I went into the apartments of his im- 
perial highness, I beheld a great rat which he had hung, with 
all the paraphernalia of an execution. I asked what all this 
meant. He told me that this rat had committed a great 
crime, which, according to the laws of war, deserved capital 
punishment. It had climbed the ramparts of a fortress of 
card-board, which he had on a table in his cabinet, and had 
eaten two sentinels, made of pith, who were on duty in the 
bastions. His setter had caught the criminal, he had been 
tried by martial law and immediately hung ; and, as I saw, 

11 



8S6 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

was to remain three days exposed as a public example. In 
justification of the rat," continues Catharine, " it may at least 
be said, that he was hung without having been questioned or 
heard in his own defense." 

It is not surprising that a woman, young, beautiful and 
vivacious, living in a court where corruption was all around 
her, where an unmarried empress was rendeiing herself no- 
torious by her gallantries, stung to the quick by the utter 
neglect of her husband, insulted by the presence of his mis- 
tresses, and disgusted by his unmitigated boobyism, should 
have sought solace in the friendship of others. And it is not 
strange that such friendships should have ripened into love, 
and that one thus tempted should have fallen. Catharine in 
her memoirs does not deny her fall, though she can not refrain 
from allowing an occasional word to drop from her pen, evi- 
dently intended in extenuation. Much which is called virtue 
consists in the absence of temptation. 

Catharine's first son, Paul, was born on the 20th of Sep- 
tember, 1753. He was unquestionably the son of Count 
Sottikoff, a nobleman alike distinguished for the graces of 
his person and of his mind. Through a thousand perils and 
cunning intrigues, Catharine and the count prosecuted their 
amour. Woe was, as usual, to both of them the result. The 
empress gives a very touching account of her sufferings, 
in both body and mind, on the occasion of the birth of her 
child. 

"As for me," she writes, "I did nothing but weep and 
moan in my bed. I neither could or would see anybody, I 
felt so miserable. I buried myself in my bed, where I did 
nothing but grieve. When the forty days of my confinement 
were over, the empress came a second time into my chamber. 
My child was brought into my room ; it was the first time I 
had seen him since his birth." 

One day Peter brought into his wife's room, for her 
amusement, a letter which he had just received from one of 



PETER III. AND HIS BKIDE. 387 

his mistresses, Madame Teploff. Showing the letter to Catha- 
rine, he said, 

" Only think ! she writes me a letter of fom- whole pages, 
and expects that I should read it, and, what is more, answer 
it also ; I, who have to go to parade, then dine, then attend 
the rehearsal of an opera, and the ballet which the cadets will 
dance at. I will tell her plainly that I have not time, and, it' 
she is vexed, I will quarrel with her till next winter." 

"That will certainly be the shortest way," Catharine 
coolly replied. " These traits," she very truly adds in her 
narrative, " are characteristic, and they will not therefore be 
out of place." 

Such was the man and such the woman wno succeeded to 
the throne of Russia upon the death of the Empress Eliza- 
beth. She had hardly emitted her last breath, ei-e the cour- 
tiers, impatiently awaiting the event, rushed to the apartments 
of the grand duke to congratulate him upon his accession to 
the crown. He immediately mounted on horseback and 
traversed the streets of St. Petersburg, scattering money 
among the crowd. The soldiers gathered around him ex- 
claiming, "Take care of us and we will take cai-e of you." 
Though the grand duke had been very unpopular there was 
no outburst of opposition. The only claim Peter III. had to 
the confidence of the nation was the fact that he was grand- 
son of Peter the Great. Conspiracies were, however, imme- 
diately set on foot to eject him from the throne and give 
Catharine his seat. Cathaiine had a high reputation for talent, 
and being very affectionate in her disposition and cordial it 
her manners, had troops of friends. Indeed, it is not strange 
that public sentiment should not only have extenuated her 
faults, but should almost have applauded them. Forgetting 
the commandments of God, and only remembering that her 
brutal husband richly merited retaliation, the public almost 
applauded the spirit with which she conducted her intrigues. 
The same sentiment pervaded England when the miserable 



388 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

George IV. goaded his wife to frenzy, and led her, in uncon- 
trollable exasperation, to pay him back in his own coin. 

Fortunately for the imbecile Peter, he had enough sense 
to appreciate the abilities of Catharine ; and a sort of maud- 
lin idea of justice, if it were not, perhaps, utter stupidity, 
dissuaded him from resenting: her freedom in the choice of 
favorites. Upon commencing his reign, he yielded himself 
to the guidance of her imperial mind, hoping to obtain some 
dignity by the renown which her measures might reflect upon 
him. Catharine advised him very wisely. She caused seven- 
teen thousand exiles to be recalled from Siberia, and abolished 
the odious secret court of chancery — that court of political 
inquisition which, for years, had kept all Russia trembling. 

For a time, Russia resounded with the praises of the new 
sovereign, and when Peter III. entered the senate and read 
an act permitting the nobility to bear arms, or not, at their 
own discretion, and to visit foreign countries whenever they 
pleased, a privilege which they had not enjoyed before, the 
gratitude of the nobles was unbounded. It should, how- 
ever, be recorded that this edict proved to be but a dead 
letter. It was expected that the nobles, as a matter of 
courtesy, should always ask permission to leave, and this 
request was frequently not granted. The secret tribunal, to 
which we have referred, exposed persons of all ranks and both 
sexes to be arrested upon the slightest suspicion. The ac- 
cused was exposed to the most horrible tortures to compel a 
confession. When every bone was broken and every joint 
dislocated, and his body. was mangled by the crushing wheel, 
if he still had endurance to persist in his denial, the accuser 
was, in his turn, placed upon the wheel, and every nerve of 
agony was tortured to force a recantation of the charge. 

Though Peter III. promulgated the wise edicts which 
were placed in his hands, he had become so thoroughly im- 
bruted by his dissolute life that he made no attempt to tear 
himself away from his mistresses and his drunken orgies. 



PETER III. AlifD HIS BKIDE. 389 

Peter III. was quite infatuated in his admiration of Fred- 
eric of Prussia. One of liis first acts upon attaining the reins 
of government was to dispatch an order forbidding the Rus- 
sian armies any longer to cooperate with Austria against 
Prussia. This command was speedily followed by another^ 
directing the Russian generals to hold themselves and their 
troops obedient to the instructions of Frederic, and to coop- 
erate in every way w^ith him to repel their former allies, the 
Austrians. It was the caprice of a drunken semi-idiot which 
thus rescued Frederic the Great from disgrace and utter ruin. 
The Emperor of Prussia had sufficient sagacity to foresee that 
Peter III. would not long maintain his seat upon the throne. 
He accordingly directed his minister at St. Petersburg, while 
continuing to live in great intimacy with the tzar, to pay the 
most deferential attention to the empress. 

There was no end to the caprices of Peter the drunkard. 
At one time he would leave the whole administration of affiiirs 
in the hands of Catharine, and again he w^ould treat her in the 
most contemptuous and insulting manner. In one of the pomp- 
ous ceremonials of the court, when the empress, adorned with 
all the marks of imperial dignity, shared the throne with Pe- 
ter, the tzar called one of his mistresses to the conspicuous seat 
he occupied with the empress, and made her sit down by his 
side. Catharine immediately rose and retired. At a public 
festival that same evening, Peter, half drunk, publicly and 
loudly launched at her an epithet the grossest which could be 
addressed to a woman. Catharine w^as so shocked that she 
burst into tears. The sympathy of the spectators was deeply 
excited in her behalf, and their indignation roused against the 
tzar. 

While Peter III. was developing his true character of 
brute and buffoon, gathering around him the lowest profli- 
gates, and reveling in the most debasing and vulgar vices, 
Catharine, though guilty and unhappy, w\as holding her court 
with dignity and affability, w^hich charmed all who approached 



390 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

her. She paid profound respect to the external observances 
of religion, daily performing her devotions in the churches, 
accosting the poor with benignity, treating the clergy with 
marked respect, and winning all hearts by her kindness and 
sympathy. 

One of the mistresses of Peter III., the Countess Yoront- 
zof, had gained such a boundless influence over her paramour, 
that she had extorted from him the promise that he would 
repudiate Catharine, marry her, and crown her as empress. 
Elated by this promise, she had the imprudence to boast of it. 
Her father and several of the courtiers whose fortunes her 
favor would secure, were busy in paving her way to the 
throne. The numerous friends of Catharine were excited, and 
were equally active in thwarting the plans of the tzar. Peter 
took no pains to conceal his intentions, and gloried in pro- 
claiming the illegitimacy of Paul, the son of the empress. 
Loathsome as his own life was, he seemed to think that his 
denunciations of Catharine, whose purity he had insulted and 
whose heart he had crushed, would secure for him the moral 
support of his subjects and of Europe. But he was mistaken. 
The sinning Catharine was an angel of purity compared with 
the beastly Peter. 

It was necessary for Peter to move with caution, for Cath- 
arine had ability, energy, innumerable friends, and was one of 
the last women in the world quietly to submit to be plunged 
into a dungeon, and then to be led to the scaffold, and by such 
a man as her despicable spouse. Peter III. was by no means 
a match for Catharine. About twelve miles from St. Peters- 
burg, on the southern shore of the Bay of Cronstadt, and 
nearly opposite the renowned fortresses of Cronstadt which 
command the approaches to St. Petersburg, was the imperial 
summer palace of Peterhof, which for some time had been the 
favorite residence of Catharine. A few miles further down 
the bay, which runs east and west, was the palace of Oranien- 
baum, in the decoration of which many succeeding monarchs 



PETER III. AND HIS BRIDE. 391 

had lavished large sums. This was Peter's favorite resort, 
and its halls ever echoed with the carousings of the prince and 
his boon companions. Every year, on the 8th of July, there 
is a grand festival at Peterhof in honor of Peter and Paul, 
the patron saints of the imperial house. This was the time 
fixed upon by Catharine and her friends for the accomplish- 
ment of their plans. The tzar, on the evening of the 8th of 
July, was at Oranienbaum, surrounded by a bevy of the most 
beautiful females of his court. Catharine was at Peterhof. It 
was a warm summer's night, and the queen lodged in a small 
cottage ome called Montplaisir, which was situated in the gar- 
den. They had not intended to carry their plot into execu- 
tion that night, but an alarm precipitated their action. At 
two o'clock in the morning Catharine was awoke from a sound 
sleep, by some one of her friends entering her room, exclaim- 
ing, 

" Your majesty has not a moment to lose. Rise and fol- 
low me !" 

Catharine, alarmed, called her confidential attendant, 
dressed hurriedly in disguise, and entered a carriage which 
was waiting for her at the garden gate. The horses were 
goaded to their utmost speed on the road to St. Petersburg, 
and so inconsiderately that soon one of them fell in utter ex- 
haustion. They were still at some distance from the city, and 
the energetic empress alighted and pressed forward on foot. 
Soon they chanced to meet a peasant, driving a light cart. 
Count Orloff, who was a reputed lover of Catharine, and was 
guiding in this movement, seized the horse, placed the em- 
press in the cart, and drove on. These delays had occupied 
so much time that it was seven o'clock in the morning before 
they reached St. Petersburg. The empress, with her compan- 
ions, immediately proceeded to the barracks, where most of 
the soldiers were quartered, and whose officers had been 
gained over, and threw herself upon their protection. 

" Danger," she said to the soldiers, " has compelled me to 



392 THE EMPIEE OF EUSSll. 

fly to you for help. The tzar had intended to put me to death, 
together with my son. I had no other means of escaping 
death than by flight. I throw myself into your arms!" 

Such an appeal from a woman, beautiful, beloved and im- 
ploring protection from the murderous hands of one who was 
hated and despised, inspired every bosom with indignation 
and with enthusiasm in her behalf With one impulse they 
took an oath to die, if necessary, in her defense ; and cries of 
" Long live the empress" filled the air. In two hours Cath- 
arine found herself at the head of several thousand veteran 
soldiers. She was also in possession of the arsenals ; and the 
great mass of the population of St. Petersburg were clamor- 
ously advocating her cause.^ 

Accompanied by a numerous and brilliant suite, the em- 
press then repaired to the metropolitan church, where the 
archbishop and a great number of ecclesiastics, whose co- 
operation had been secured, received her, and the venerable 
archbishop, a man of imposing character and appearance, 
dressed in his sacerdotal robes, led her to the altar, and 
placing the imperial crown upon her head, proclaimed her 
sovereign of all the Russias, with the title of Catharine the 
Second. A Te Deum was then chanted, and the shouts of 
the multitude proclaimed the cordiality with which the popu- 
lace accepted the revolution. The empress then repaired to 
the imperial palace, which was thrown open to all the people, 
and which, for hours, was thronged with the masses, who fell 
upon their knees before her, taking their oath of allegiance. 

The friends of Catharine were, in the meantime, every- 
where busy in putting the city in a state of defense, and in 
posting cannon to sweep the streets should Peter attempt re- 
sistance. The tzar seemed to be left without a friend. No 
one even took the trouble to inform him of what was trans- 
piring. Troops in the vicinity were marched into the city, 
and before the end of the day, Catharine found herself at the 
bead of fifteen thousand men ; the most formidable defenses 



PETEK III. AND HIS BRIDE. 393 

were arranged, strict order prevailed, and not a drop of blood 
had been shed. The manifesto of the empress, which had 
been secretly printed, was distributed throughout the city, 
and a day apjiointed when the foreign embassadors would be 
received by Catharine. The revolution seemed already ac- 
complished without a struggle and almost without an effort. 

17* 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE CONSPIEACY; AND ACCESSION OF CATHARINE XL 
From I'762 to 1765. 

Petee III, AT Obanienbattm. — Cathaeine at Peterhof. — ^TiiE Successful Accom- 
plishment OF THE CoySPIRACT. — TERROR OF PeTEK. — HiS VACILLATING AND FeEBLK 

Character. — Flioht to Ceonstadt. — Eepulse. — Heroic Counsel of Munich. — 
Peter's Eeturn to Oeanienbaum. — His Suppliant Letters to Catharinf^ — . 
His Arrest. — Imprisonment. — Assassination. — Proclamation of the Empress. 
Her Complicity in the Crime, — Energy of Catharine's Administration. — Her 
Expansive Views and Sagacious Policy. — Contemplated Marbiagk with Count 
Oblof. 

IT was the morning of the 19th of July, 1762. Peter, at 
Oranienbaum, had passed most of the night, with his boon 
companions and his concubines, in intemperate carousiiigs. 
He awoke at a late hour in the morning, and after breakfast 
set out in a carriage, with several of his women, accompanied 
by a troop of courtiers in other carriages, for Peterhof. The 
gay party were riding at a rapid rate over the beautiful shore 
road, looking out upon the Bay of Cronstadt, when they 
were met by a messenger from Peterhof, sent to inform them 
that the empress had suddenly disappeared during the night. 
Peter, u^Don receiving this surprising intelligence, turned pale 
as ashes, and alighting, conversed for some time anxiously with 
the messenger. Entering his carriage again, he drove with 
the utmost speed to Peterhof, and with characteristic silliness 
began to search the cupboards, closets, and under the bed for 
the empress. Those of greater penetration foresaw what had 
happened, but were silent, that they might ndt add to his 
alarm. 

In the meantime some peasants, who had come from St. 



ACCESSION OF CATHARINE II. 395 

Petersburg, related to a group of servants rumors they had 
heard of the insurrection in that city. A fearful gloom op- 
pressed all, and Peter was in such a state of terror that he 
feared to ask any questions. As they were standing thus mute 
with confusion and dismay, a countryman rode up, and making 
a profound bow to the tzar, presented him with a note. Peter 
ran his eyes hastily over it, and then read it aloud. It com- 
municated the appalling intelligence wdiich we have just re- 
corded. 

The consternation into which the whole imperial party was 
thrown no language can describe. The women were in tears. 
The courtiers could offer not a word of encouragement or 
counsel. One, the king's chancellor, with the tzar's consent, 
set off for St. Petersburg to attempt to rouse the partisans of 
the tzar; but he could find none there. The wretched Pe- 
ter was now continually receiving corroborative intelligence 
of the insurrection, and he strode up and down the w'alks 
of the garden, forming innumerable plans and adhering to 
none. 

The tzai" had a guard of three thousand troops at his pal- 
ace of Oranienbaura. At noon these approached Pcterhof led 
by their veteran commander, Munich. This energetic officer 
urged an immediate march upon St. Petersburg. 

'^ Believe me," said Munich, " you have many friends in 
the city. The royal guard will rally around your standard 
when they see it approaching ; and if we are forced to fight, 
the rebels will make but a short resistance." 

While he was urging this energetic measure, and the 
women and the courtiers were trying to dissuade him from 
the step, and w^ere entreating him to go back to Oranienbaum, 
news arrived that the troops of the empress, twenty thousand 
in number, were on the march to arrest him. 

"Well," said Munich to the tzar, "if you wish to decline 
a battle, it is not wise at any rate to remain here, where you 
have no means of defense. Neither Oranienbaum nor Peter- 



396 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

hof can withstand a siege. But Cronstadt offers you a safe 
retreat. Cronstadt is still under your command. You have 
there a formidable fleet and a numerous garrison. From 
Cronstadt you will find it easy to bring Petersburg back to 
duty." 

The fortresses of Cronstadt are situated on an island of the 
same name, at the mouth of a bay which presents the only 
approach to St. Petersburg. This fortress, distant about thirty 
miles west of St. Petersburg, may be said to be impregnable. 
In the late war with Russia it bade defiance to the combined 
fleets of France and England. As we have before mentioned, 
Peterhof and Oranienbaum were pleasure-palaces, situated on 
the eastern shore of the Bay of Cronstadt, but a few miles 
from the fortress and but a few miles from each other. The 
gardens of these palaces extend to the waters of the bay, where 
there are ever riding at anchor a fleet of pleasure-boats and 
royal yachts. 

The advice of Munich was instantly adopted. A boat was 
sent off conveying an officer to take command of the fortress, 
while, in the meantime, two yachts were got ready for the 
departure of the tzar and his party. Peter and his affrighted 
court hastened on board, continually looking over their shoul- 
ders fearing to catch a sight of the troops of the queen, whose 
appearance they every moment apprehended. But the ener- 
getic Catharine had anticipated this movement, and her emis- 
saries had already gained the soldiers of the garrison, and were 
in possession of Cronstadt. 

As the two yachts, which conveyed Peter and his party, 
entered the harbor, they found the garrison, under arms, 
lining the coast. The cannons were leveled, the matches 
lighted, and the moment the foremost yacht, which contained 
the emperor, cast anchor, a sentinel cried out, 

" Who comes there?" 

" The emperor," was the answer from the yacht. 

" There is no emperor," the sentinel replied. 



ACCESSION OF CATHARINE II. 39V 

Peter III. started forward upon the deck, and, throwing 
back his cloak, exhibited the badges of his order, exclaiming, 

*' What ! do you not know me ?" 

" No !" cried a thousand voices ; " we know of no em- 
peror. Long live the Empress Catharine II." 

They then threatened immediately to sink the yacht unless 
the tzar retired. 

The heroic Munich urged the tzar to an act of courage of 
which he was totally incapable. 

" Let us leap on shore," said he ; " none will dare to fire 
on you, and Cronstadt will still be your majesty's." 

But Peter, in dismay, fled into the cabin, hid himself 
among his women, and ordered the cable instantly to be cut, 
and the yacht to be pulled out to sea by the oars. They 
Avere soon beyond the reach of the guns. It was now night, 
serene and beautiful ; the sea was smooth as glass, and the 
stars shone with unusual splendor in the clear sky. The pol- 
troon monarch of all the Russias had not yet ventured upon 
deck, but was trembling in his cabin, surrounded by his dis- 
mayed mistresses, when the helmsman entered the cabin and 
said to the tzar, 

"Sire, to what port is it your majesty's pleasure that I 
should take the vessel ?" 

Peter gazed, for a moment, in consternation and bewilder- 
ment, and then sent for Munich. 

" Field marshal," said he, " I perceive that I was too 
late in following your advice. You see to what extrem- 
ities I am reduced. Tell me, I beseech you, what I ought 
to do." 

About two hundred miles from w^here they were, directly 
down the Gulf of Finland, was the city of Revel, one of the 
naval depots of Russia. A large squadron of ships of war 
was riding at anchor there. Munich, as prompt in council as 
he was energetic in action, replied, 

" Proceed immediately to join the squadron at Revel. 



398 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

There take a ship, and go on to Pomerania.* Put yourself 
at the head of your army, return to Russia, and I promise 
you that in six weeks Petersburg and all the rest of the em- 
pire will be in subjection to you." 

The women and the courtiers, with characteristic timidity, 
remonstrated against a measure so decisive, and, believing 
that the empress would not be very implacable, entreated 
the tzar to negotiate rather than fight. Peter yielded to 
their senseless solicitations, and ordered them to make imme- 
diately for Oranienbaum. They reached the dock at four 
o'clock in the morning. Peter hastened to his apartment, 
and wrote a letter to the empress, which he dispatched by a 
courier. In this letter he made a humble confession of his 
faults, and promised to share the sovereign authority with 
Catharine if she would consent to reconciliation. The em- 
press was, at this time, at the head of her army within about 
twentv miles of Oranienbaum. Durinor the nis^ht, she had 
slept for a few hours upon some cloaks which the officers of 
her suite had spread for her bed. Catharine, knowing well 
that perjury was one of the most trivial of the fliults of the 
tzar, made no reply, but pressed forward with her troops. 

Peter, soon receiving information of the advance of the 
army, ordered one of his fleetest horses to be saddled, and 
dressed himself in disguise, intending thus to efiect his escape 
to the frontiers of Poland. But, with his constitutional irreso- 
lution, he soon abandoned this plan, and, ordering the fortress 
of Oranienbaum to be dismantled, to convince Catharine that 
be intended to make no resistance, he wrote to the empress 
another letter still more humble and sycophantic than the 
first. He implored her forgiveness in terms of the most 
abject humiliation. He assured her that he was ready to 
resign to her unconditionally the crown of Russia, and that 

* Pomerania was one of the duchies of Prussia, where the Russian army, 
in cooperation with the King of Prussia, was assembled Frederic might, 
perhaps, have sent his troops to aid Peter in the recovery of his crown. 



ACCESSION OF CATHARINE TI. 399 

he only asked permission to retire to his native ducliy of Hol- 
stein, and that the empress would graciously grant him a pen- 
sion for his support. 

Catharine read the letter, but deigning no reply, sent 
back the chamberlain who brought it, with a verbal message 
to her husband that she could enter into no negotiations with 
him, and could only accept his unconditional submission. The 
chamberlain, Ismailof, returned to Oranienbaum. The tz.ir 
had with him there only his Holstein guai-d consisting of six 
hundred men. Ismailof urged the tzar, as the only measure 
of safety which now remained, to abandon his troops, who 
could render him no defense, and repair to the empress, 
throwing himself upon her mercy. For a short time the im- 
potent mind of the degraded prince was in great turmoil. 
But as was to be expected, he surrendered himself to the 
humiliation. Entering his carriage, he rode towards Peter- 
hof to meet the empress. Soon he encountered the battal- 
ions on the march for his capture. Silently they opened 
their ranks and allowed him to enter, and then, closing 
around him, they stunned him with shouts of, " Long live 
Catharine." 

The miserable man had the effrontery to take with him, 
in his carriage, one of his mistresses. As she alighted at the 
palace of Peterhof, some of the soldiers tore the ribbons from 
her dress. The tzar was led up the grand stair-case, stripped 
of the insignia of imperial power, and was shut up, and care- 
fully guarded in one of the chambers of the palace. Count 
Panin then visited him, by order of the empress, and de- 
manded of him the abdication of the crown, informing him 
that having thus abdicated, he would be sent back to his 
native duchy and would enjoy the dignity of Duke of Hol- 
stein for the remainder of his days. Peter was now as 
pliant as wax. Aided by the count, he wrote and signed 
the following declaration : 

" During the short space of my absolute reign over the 



400 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

empire of Russia, I became sensible that I was not able to 
support so great a burden, and that my abilities were not 
equal to the task of governing so great an empire, either as a 
sovereign or in any other capacity whatever. I also foresaw 
the great troubles which must thence have arisen, and have 
been followed with the total ruin of the empire, and my own 
eternal disgrace. After having therefore seriously reflected 
thereon, I declare, without constraint, and in the most solemn 
manner, to the Russian empire and to the whole universe, 
that I for ever renounce the government of the said empire, 
never desiring hereafter to reign therein, either as an absolute 
sovereign, or under any other form of government; never 
wishing to aspire thereto, or to use any means, of any sort, for 
that purpose. As a pledge of which I swear sincerely before 
God and all the world to this present renunciation, written 
and signed this 29th day of June, O. S. 1762."* 

Peter III., having placed this abdication in the hands of 
Count Panin, seemed quite serene, fancying himself safe, at 
least from bodily harm. In the evening, however, an officer, 
with a strong escort, came and conveyed him a prisoner to Rop- 
scha, a small imperial palace about fifteen miles from Peter- 
hof. Peter, after his disgraceful reign of six months, was now 
imprisoned in a palace ; and his wife, whom he had intended 
to repudiate and probably to behead, was now sovereign Em- 
press of Russia. In the evening, the thunderings of the can- 
non upon the ramparts of St. Petersbm'g announced the 
victory of Catharine. She however slept that night at Peter- 
hotj and in the morning received the homage of the nobility, 
who from all quarters flocked around her to give in their 
adhesion to her reign. 

Field Marshal Munich, who with true fealty had stood by 

* By the Gregorian Calendar or New Style, adopted by Pope Gregory 
XIII. in 1582, ten days were dropped after the 4th of October, and the 5th 
was reckoned as the loth. Thus the 29th of June, 0. S. would be July 8, 

N. S. 



ACCESSION OF CATHARINE II. 40J 

Peter III. to the last, urmng him to unfurl the banner of the 
tzar and fight heroically for his crown, appeared with the rest. 
The noble old man witl an unblushing brow entered the pres- 
ence of Catharine. As soon as she perceived him she called 
aloud, 

"Field marshal, it was you, then, who wanted to fight 
me?" 

" Yes, madam," Munich answered, in a manly tone ; 
" could I do less for the prince who delivered me from cap- 
tivity ? But it is henceforth my duty to fight for you, and 
you will find in me a fidelity equal to that with which I had 
devoted my services to him."* 

In the afternoon, the empress returned to St. Petersburg. 
She entered the city on horseback, accompanied by a bril- 
liant retinue of nobles, and followed by her large army of 
fifteen thousand troops. All the soldiers wore garlands of 
oak leaves. The immense crowds in the city formed lines for 
the passage of the empress, scattered flowers in her path, and 
greeted her with constant bursts of acclaim. All the streets 
through which she passed were garlanded and spanned with 
triumphal arches, the bells rang their merriest peals, and mil- 
itary salutes bellowed from all the ramparts. As the high ec- 
clesiastics crowded to meet her, they kissed her hand, while 
she, in accordance with Russian courtesy, kissed their cheeks. 

* Marshal Munich was eighty-two years of age. Elizabeth had sent him 
to Siberian exile. Peter liberated him. Upon his return to Moscow, after 
twenty years of exile, he found one son living, and t"went3'-two grandchildren 
and great grandchildren whom he had never seen. When the heroic old 
man presented himself before the tzar dressed in the sheep-skin coat he had 
worn in Siberia, Peter said, 

" I hope, notwithstanding your age, you may still serve me," 

Munich replied, 

"Since your majesty has brought me from darkness to light, and called me 
from the depths of a cavern, to admit me to the foot of the throne, you will 
find me ever ready to expose my life in your service. Neither a tedious 
exile nor the severity of a Siberian climate have been able to extinguish, or 
even to damp, the ardor 1 have formerly shown for the interests of Russia 
and the glorv of its monarcli." 



402 THE EMPIRE OP EUSSIA. 

Cathanne summoned the senate, and presided over its 
deliberations with wonderful dignity and grace. The foreign 
ministers, confident in the stability of her reign, hastened to 
present their congratulations. Peter found even a few hours 
in the solitude of the palace of Ropscha exceedingly oppres- 
sive ; he accordingly sent to the empress, soliciting the pres- 
ence of a negro servant to whom he was much attached, and 
asking also for his dog, his violin, a Bible and a few novels. 

" I am disgusted," he wrote, " with the wickedness of 
mankind, and am resolved henceforth to devote myself to a 
philosophical life." 

After Peter had been six days at Ropscha, one morning 
two nobles, who had been most active in the revolution which 
had dethroned the tzar, entered his apartment, and, after con- 
versing for a time, brandy was brought in. The cup of which 
the tzar drank was poisoned ! He was soon seized with vio- 
lent colic pains. The assassins then threw him upon the floor, 
tied a napkin around his neck, and strangled him. Count Orlof, 
the most intimate friend of the empress, and who was reputed 
to be her paramour, was one of these murderers. He imme- 
diately mounted his horse, and rode to St. Petersburg to 
inform the empress that Peter was dead. Whether Cath- 
arine was a party to this assassination, or whether it was 
perpetrated entirely without her knowledge, is a question 
which now can probably never be decided. It is very certain 
that the grief she manifested was all feigned, and that the 
assassins were rewarded for their devotion to her interests. 
She shut herself up for a few days, assuming the aspect of a 
mourner, and issued to her subjects a declaration announcing 
the death of the late tzar. When one enters upon the de- 
clivity of crime, the descent is ever rapid. The innocent girl, 
who, but a few years before, had entered the Russian court 
from her secluded ancestral castle a spotless child of fifteen, 
was now most deeply involved in intrigues and sins. It is 
probable, indeed, that she had not intended the death of her 



ACCESSION OF CATHARINE II. 403 

husband, but had designed sending liim to Holstein and pro- 
viding for him abundantly, for the rest of his days, with dogs 
and wine, and leaving him to his own indulgences. It is cer- 
tain, however, that the empress did not punish, or even dis- 
miss from her favor, the murderers of Peter. She announced 
to the nation his death in the following terms : 

*'-Sy the G-racG of God, Catharine II., Empress of all 
the Mussias, to our loving Subjects, Greeting: 

" The seventh day after our accession to the throne of all 
the Russias, we received information that the late emperor, 
Peter III., was attacked with a most violent colic. That we 
might not be wanting in Christian duty, or disobedient to 
the divine command by which we are enjoined to preserve 
the life of our neighbor, we immediately ordered that the 
said Peter should be furnished with every thing that might 
be judged necessary to restore his health by the aids of med- 
icine. But, to our great regret and affliction, we were yester- 
day evening apprised that, by the permission of the Almighty, 
the late emperor departed this life. We have therefore or- 
dered his body to be conveyed to the monastery of Kefsky, in 
order to its interment in that place. At the same time, with 
our imperial and maternal voice, we exhort our faithful sub- 
jects to forgive and forget what is past, to pay the last duties 
to his body, and to pray to God sincerely for the repose of 
his soul, wishing them, however, to consider this unexpected 
and sudden death as an especial effect of the providence of 
God, whose impenetrable decrees are working for us, for our 
throne, and for our country things known only to his holy 
will. 

''Done at St. Petersburg, July '7th (N. S., July 18th), 
17G2." 

The news of the revolution soon spread throughout Russia, 
and the nobles generally acquiesced in it without a murmur. 
The masses of the people no more thought of expressing or 



404 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

having an opinion than did the sheep. One of the first acts 
of the empress was to send an embassy to Frederic of Prussia, 
announcing, 

" That she was resolved to observe inviolably the peace 
recently concluded with Prussia; but that nevertheless she 
had decided to bring back to Russia all her troops in Silesia, 
Prussia and Pomerania." 

All the sovereigns of Europe acknowledged the title of 
Catharine II., and some sent especial congratulations on her 
accession to the throne. Maria Theresa, of Austria, was at 
first quite delighted, hoping that Catharine would again unite 
the Russian troops with hers in hostility to her great rival, 
Frederic. But in this expectation she was doomed to bitter 
disappointment. The King of Prussia, in a confidential note 
to Count Finkenstein, wrote of Catharine and the new reign 
as follows : 

" The Emperor of Russia has been dethroned by his con- 
sort. It was to be expected. That princess has much good 
sense, and the same friendly relations towards us as the de- 
ceased. She has no religion, but acts the devotee. The chan- 
cellor Bestuchef is her greatest favorite, and, as he has a strong 
propensity to gui?iees, I flatter myself that I shall be able to 
retain the friendship of the court. The poor emperor wanted 
to imitate Peter I., but he had not the capacity for it." 

The empress, taking with her her son Paul, and a very 
brilliant and numerous suite of nobles, repaired to Moscow, 
where she was crowned with unusual splendor. By marked 
attention to the soldiers, providing most liberally for their 
comfort, she soon secured the enthusiastic attachment of the 
army. By the most scrupulous observance of all the external 
rites of religion, she won the confidence of the clergy. In 
every movement Catharine exhibited wonderful sagacity and 
energy. It was not to be supposed that the partisans of Peter 
III. would be ejected from their places to give room for others, 
without making desperate efibrts to regain what they had lost. 



ACCESSION OF CATHAKIXK II. 4:0b 

A very formidable conspiracy was soon organized, and the 
friends of Catharine were thrown into the greatest state of 
alarm. But her courage did not, for one moment, forsake her. 

*' Why are you alarmed ?" said she. " Think you that I 
fear to face this danger ; or rather do you apprehend that I 
know not how to overcome it ? Recollect that you have seen 
me, in moments far more terrible than these, in full possession 
of all the vigor of my mind ; and that I can support the most 
cruel rererses of fortune with as much serenity as I have sup- 
ported her favors. Think you that a few mutinous soldiers 
are to deprive me of a crown that I accepted with reluctance, 
and only as the means of delivering the Russian nation from 
their miseries? They cause me no alarm. That Providence 
which has called me to reign, will preserve me for the glory 
and the happiness of the empire. That almighty arm which 
has hitherto been my defense will now confound my foes !" 

The revolt was speedily quelled. The celebrity of her ad- 
ministration soon resounded from one end of Europe to the 
other. She presided over the senate; assisted at all the delib- 
erations of the council ; read the dispatches of the embassa- 
dors ; wrote, with her own hand, or dictated the answers, and 
watched carefully to see that all her orders were faithfully 
executed. She studied the lives of the most disting^uished 
men, and was emulous of the renown of those who had been 
friends and benefactors of the human race. There has seldom 
been a sovereign on any throne more assiduously devoted to 
the cares of empire than was Catharine II. In one of her first 
manifestoes, issued the 10th of August of this year, she uttered 
the words, which her conduct proved to be essentially true, 

." Not only all that we have or may have, but also our 
life itself, we have devoted to our dear country. We value 
nothing on our own account. We serve not ourself. But we 
labor with all pains, with all diligence and care for the glory 
and happiness of our people." 

Catharine found corruption and bribery everywhere, and 



406 THE EMPIRE OF KUSSIA. 

slie engaged in the work of reform with the energies of Her- 
cules in cleansinir the Auo-ean stables. She abolished, indio:- 
nantly the custom, which had existed for ages, of attempting 
to extort confession of crime by torture. It is one of the 
marvels of human depravity that intelligent minds could have 
been so imbruted as to tolerate, for a day, so fiend-like a 
wrong. The whole system of inquisitorial investigations, in 
both Church and State, was utterly abrogated. Foreigners 
were invited to settle in the empire. The lands were care- 
fully explored, that the best districts might be pointed out 
for tillage, for forest and for pasture. The following procla- 
mation, inviting foreigners to settle in Russia, shows the 
liberality and the comprehensive views which animated the 
empress : 

" Any one who is destitute shall receive money for the 
expenses of his journey, and shall be forwarded to these free 
lands at the expense of the crown. On his arrival he shall 
receive a competent assistance, and even an advance of capi- 
tal, fi'ee of interest, for ten years. The stranger is exempted 
from all service, either military or civil, and from all taxes for 
a certain time. In these new tracts of land the colonists may 
live according to their own good-will, under their own juris- 
diction for thirty years. All religions are tolerated." 

Thus encouraged, thousands flocked from Germany to the 
fresh and fertile acres on the banks of the Volga and the Sa- 
mara. The emigration became so great that several of the 
petty German princes issued prohibitions. In the rush of 
adventurers, of the indolent, the improvident and the vicious, 
great suffering ensued. Desert wilds were, however, peopled, 
and the children of the emigrants succeeded to homes of com- 
parative comfort. Settlers crowded to these lands even fi*om 
France, Poland and Sweden. Ten thousand families emi- 
grated to the district of Saratof alone. 

" The world," said Catharine one day to the French min 
ister, " will not be able pro^^erly to judge of my administration 



ACCESSION OF CATHARINE II. 407 

till after five years. It will require at least so much time to 
reduce the empire to order. In the mean time I shall behave, 
with all the princes of Europe, like a finished coquette. I 
have the finest army in the world. I have a greater taste 
for war than for peace ; but, I am restrained from war by 
humanity, justice and reason. I shall not allow myself, like 
Elizabeth, to be pressed into a war. I shall enter upon it 
when it will prove advantageous to me, but never from com- 
plaisance to others." 

A large number of the nobles, led by the chancellor of 
the empire, now presented a petition to Catharine, urging her 
again to marry. After a glowing eulogium on all the empress 
had done for the renown and prosperity of Russia, they re- 
minded her of the feeble constitution of her son Paul, of the 
terrible calamity a disputed succession might impose upon 
Russia, and entreated her to give an additional proof of her 
devotion to the good of her subjects, by sacrificing her own 
liberty to their welfare, in taking a spouse. This advice was 
quite in harmony with the inclinations of the empress. Count 
Orlof, one of the most conspicuous nobles of the court, and 
tlie prime actor in the conspiracy which had overthrown and 
assassinated Peter III., was the recognized favorite of Catha- 
rine. But Count Orlof had assumed such haughty airs, re- 
garding Catharine as indebted to him for her crown, that he 
had rendered himself extremely unpopular ; and so much 
discontent was manifested in view of his elevation to the 
throne, that Catharine did not dare to proceed with the meas- 
ure. It is generally supposed, however, that there was a sort 
of private marriage instituted, of no real validity, between 
Catharine and Orlof, by which the count became virtually 
tiie husband of the empress. 

Catharine was no\^ firmly established on the throne. The 
beneficial eiFects of her administration were daily becom- 
ing more apparent in all parts of Russia. Nothing which 
could be promotive of the prosperity of the empire escaped 



408 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

her observation. With questions of commerce, finance and 
politics she seemed equally familiar. On the 11th of August, 
1673, she issued an imperial edict written by her own hand, 
in which it is said, 

" On the whole surface of the earth there is no country 
better adapted for commerce than our empire. Russia has 
spacious harbors in Europe, and, overland, the way is open 
through Poland to every region. Siberia extends, on one 
side, over all Asia, and India is not very remote from Oren- 
burcr. On the other side, Russia seems to touch on America. 
Across the Euxine is a passage, though as yet unexplored, 
to Egypt and Africa, and bountiful Providence has blessed the 
extensive provinces of our empire with such gifts of nature as 
can rarely be found in all the four quarters of the world." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

REIGN OF CATHARINE II. 
From IT 65 to IT 74. 

Eneegt of Cathaeine's Administration.— Titlbs OFgHoNOB Decreed to Heb.— Codb 
OF Laav-8 Instituted.— The Assassination of the E?aPRESS Attempted.— Encour- 
agement of Leakned Men.— Catiiaeine Inoculated foji the Small-Pox.— New 
War with Turkey.— Capture, of the Crimea.— Sailing of the Russian Fleet.— 
Great Naval Victory.— Visit of the Prussian Prince Henry.— The Sleigh 
Ride.— Plans for the Partition of Poland.— Tjie Hermitage.— Marriage op 
the Grand Duke Paul.— Correspondence with Voltaire and Diderot. 

''FHE friends and the foes of Catharine are alike lavish in their 
-L encomiums upon her attempts to elevate Russia in pros- 
perity and in national greatness. Under her guidance an as- 
sembly was convened to frame a code of laws, based on jus- 
tice, and which should be supreme throughout all Russia. 
The assembly prosecuted its work with great energy, and, 
ere its dissolution, passed a resolution decreeing to the em- 
press the titles of "Great, Wise, Prudent, and Mother of the 
Country." 

To this decree Catharine modestly replied, "If I have 
rendered myself worthy of the first title, it belongs to pos- 
terity to confer it upon me. Wisdom and prudence are the 
gifts of Heaven, for which I daily give thanks, without pre- 
suming to derive any merit from them myself. The title of 
Mother of the Country is, in my eyes, the most dear of all, 
—the only one I can accept, and which I regard as the most 
benign and glorious recompense for my labors and solicitudes 
in behalf of a people whom I love." 

The code of laws thus framed is a noble monument to the 
genius and humanity of Catharine II. The principles of en- 

18 



410 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

lightened philanthropy pervades the code, which recognizes 
the immutable principles of right, and which seems designed 
to undermine the very foundations of despotism. In the in- 
structions which Catharine drew up for the guidance of the 
assembly, she wrote, 

"Laws should be framed with the sole object of con- 
ducting mankind to the greatest happiness. It is our duty to 
mitigate the lot of those who live in a state of dependence. 
The liberty and security of the citizens ought to be the grand 
and precious object of all laws ; they should all tend to ren- 
der life, honor and property as stable and secure as the con- 
stitution of the government itself. It is incomparably better 
to prevent crimes than to punish them. The use of torture 
is contrary to sound reason. Humanity cries out against this 
practice, and insists on its being abolished." 

The condition of the peasantry, heavily taxed by the 
nobles, excited her deepest commiseration. She wished 
their entire enfranchisement, but was fully conscious that 
she was not strong enough to undertake so sweeping a mea- 
sure of reform. She insisted, liowever, " that laws should 
be prescribed to the nobility, obliging them to act more cir- 
cumspectly in the manner of levying their dues, and to pro- 
tect the peasant, so that his condition might be improved 
and that he might be enabled to acquire property." 

A ruffian attempted to assassinate Catharine. He was ar- 
rested in the palace, with a long dagger concealed in his dress, 
and without hesitation confessed his design. Catharine had 
the assassin brought into her presence, conversed mildly with 
him, and seeing that there was no hope of disarming his fa- 
naticism, banished him to Siberia. But the innocent daughter 
of the guilty man she took under her protection, and subse- 
quently appointed her one of her maids of honor. In the 
year 1767, she sent a delegation of scientific men on a geo- 
logical survey into the interior of the empire, with directions 
to determine the geographical position of the principal places, 



REIGN OF CATHARINE II. 411 

to mark their temperature, their productions, their wealth, 
and the manners and characters of the several people by 
whom they were inhabited. Russia w^as then, as now, a 
world by itself, peopled by innumerable tribes or nations, 
with a great diversity of climates, and with an infinite variety 
of manners and customs. A large portion of the country 
was immersed in the profoundest barbarism, almost inacces- 
sible to the traveler. In other portions vagrant hordes 
wandered without any fixed habitations. Here was seen the 
castle of the noble with all its imposing architecture, and its 
enginery of offense and defense. The mud hovels of the 
peasants were clustered around the massive pile; and they 
passed their lives in the most deijradinir bondao-e. 

From all parts of Europe the most learned men were in- 
vited to the court of Catharine. The renowned mathemati- 
cian, Euler, was lured from Berlin to St. Petersburg. The 
empress settled upon him a large annual stipend, and made 
him a present of a house. Catharine was fully conscious that 
the glory of a country consists, not in its military achieve- 
ments, but in advancement in science and in the useful and 
elegant arts. The annual sum of five thousand dollars was 
assigned to encourage the translation of foreign literary 
works into the Russian language. The small-pox was mak- 
ing fearful ravages in Russia. The empress had heard of 
inoculation. She sent to England for a physician, Dr. Thomas 
Dimsdale, who had piacticed inoculation for the small-pox 
w^th great success in London. Immediately upon his arrival 
the empress sent for him, and with skill which astonished the 
physician, questioned him respecting his mode of practice. 
He w^as invited to dine with the empress; and the doctor 
thus describes the dinner party : 

" The empress sat singly at the upper end of a long table, 
at which about twelve of the nobility were guests. The en- 
tertainment consisted of a variety of excellent dishes, served 
op after the French manner, and was concluded by a dessert 



412 THE EMPIEE OF EUSSIA. 

of the fioest fruits and sweetmeats, such as I little expected 
to find in that northern climate. Most of these luxuries were, 
however, the produce of the empress's own dominions. Pine- 
apples, indeed, are chiefly imported from England, though 
those of the growth of Russia, of which we had one that day, 
are of good flavor but generally small. Water-melons and 
grapes are brought from Astrachan ; great plenty of melons 
from Moscow ; and apples and pears from the Ukraine. 

"But what most enlivened the whole entertainment, was 
the unaffected ease and affability of the empress herself. 
Each of her guests had a share of her attention and polite- 
ness. The conversation was kept up with freedom and cheer- 
fulness to be expected rather from persons of the same rank, 
than from subjects admitted to the honor of their sovereign's 
company." 

The empress after conversing with Dr. Dimsdale, decided 
to introduce the practice of small-pox inoculation* into Rus- 
sia, and heroically resolved that the experiment should first 
be tried upon herself. Dr. Dimsdale, oppressed by the im- 
mense responsibility thus thrown upon him, for though the 
disease, thus introduced, was generally mild, in not a few 
cases it proved fatal, requested the assistance of the court 
physicians. 

" It is not necessary," the empress replied ; " you come 
well recommended. The conversation I have had increases 
my confidence in you. It is impossible that my physicians 
should have much skill in this operation. My life is my own, 
and with the utmost cheerfulness I entrust myself to your 
care. I wish to be inoculated as soon as you judge it con- 
venient, and desire to have it kept a secret." 

The anxious physician begged that the experiment might 

* Yaccination, or inoculation -with the cow-pox, was not introduced to 
Europe until many years after this. The celebrated treatise of Jenner, en- 
titled An inquiry into the causes and effects of Variolce Vaccince, was published 
in 1798. 



EEIGN OF CATHARINE II. 413 

first be tried by inoculating some of her own sex and age, 
and, as near as possible, of her own constitutional habits. 
The empress replied, 

" The practice is not novel, and no doubt remains of its 
general success. It is, therefore, not necessary that there 
should be any delay on that account." 

Catharine was inoculated on the 12th of October, 1768, 
and went immediately to a secluded private palace at some 
distance from the city, under the pretense that she wished to 
superintend some repairs. She took with her only the ne- 
cessary attendants. Soon, however, several of the nobility, 
some of whom she suspected had not had the small-pox, 
followed. As a week was to elapse after the operation be- 
fore the disease would begin to manifest itself, the empress 
said to Dr. Dimsdale, 

" I must rely on you to give me notice when it is possible 
for me to communicate the disease. Though I could wish to 
keep my inoculation a secret, yet far be it from me to conceal 
it a moment when it may become hazardous to others." 

In the mean time she took part in every amusement with 
her wonted affability and without the slightest indication of 
alarm. She dined with the rest of the company, and enliv- 
ened the whole court with those conversational charms for 
which she was distinguished. The disease proved light, and 
she was carried through it very successfully. Soon after, she 
wrote to Voltaire, 

" I have not kept my bed a single instant, and I have 
received company every day. I am about to have my only 
son inoculated. Count Oilof, that hero who resembles the 
ancient Romans in the best times of the republic, both in cour- 
age and generosity, doubting whether he had ever had the 
small-pox, has put himself under the hands of our English- 
man, and, the next day after the operation, went to the hunt 
in a very deep fall of snow. A great number of courtiers 
have followed his example, and many others are preparing to 



414 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

do SO. Besides this, inoculation is now carried on at Peters* 
burg in three seminaries of education, and in an hospital estab. 
lished under the protection of Dr. Dimsdale." 

The empress testified her gratitude for the benefits Dr. 
Dimsdale had conferred upon Russia by making him a present 
of fifty thousand dollars, and settling upon him a pension of 
one thousand dollars a year. On the 3d of December, 1768, 
a thanksgiving service was performed in the chapel of the pal- 
ace, in gratitude for the recovery of her majesty and her son 
Paul from the small-pox. 

The Turks began now to manifest great apprehensions in 
view of the rapid growth of the Russian empire. Poland was 
so entirely overshadowed that its monarchs were elected and 
its government administered under the influence of a Russian 
army. In truth, Poland had become but little more than one 
of the provinces of Catharine's empire. Tlie Grand Seignior 
formed an alliance with the disaffected Poles, arrested the 
Russiai\ embassador at Constantinople, and mustered his hosts 
for war. Catharine II. was prepared for the emergency. Early 
in 1769 the Russian army commenced its march towards the 
banks of the Cuban, in the wilds of Circassia. The Tartars of 
the Crimea were the first foes whom the armies of Catharine 
encountered. The Sea of Azof, with its surrounding shores, 
soon fell into the possession of Russia. One of the generals 
of Catharine, General Drevitch, a man whose name deserves 
to be held up to eternal infamy, took nine Polish gentlemen 
as captives, and, cutting off their hands at the wrist, sent 
them home, thus mutilated, to strike terror into the Poles. 
Already Frederic of Prussia and Catharine were secretly con- 
ferring upon a united attack upon Poland and the division of 
the territory between them. 

Frederic sent his brother Henry to St. Petersburg to con- 
fer with Catharine upon this contemplated robbery, sufficiently 
gigantic in character to be worthy of the energies of the royal 
bandits. Catharine received Henry with splendor which the 



REIGN OF CATHARINE II. 416 

world has seldom seen equaled. One of the entertainments 
with which she honored him was a moonlight sleigh ride 
arranged upon a scale of imperial grandeur. The sleigh 
which conveyed Catharine and the Prussian prince was an im- 
mense parlor drawn by sixteen horses, covered and inclosed 
by double glasses, which, with numberless mirrors, reflected 
all objects within and without. This sledge was followed by 
a retinue of two thousand others. Every person, in all the 
sledges, was dressed in fancy costume, and masked. When 
two miles from the city, the train passed beneath a triumphal 
arch illuminated with all conceivable splendor. At the dis- 
tance of every mile, some grand structure appeared in a blaze 
of light, a pyramid, or a temple, or colonnades, or the most 
brilliant displays of fireworks. Opposite each of these struc- 
tures ball rooms had been reared, which were crowded with 
the rustic peasantry, amusing themselves with music, dancing 
and all the games of the country. Each of the spacious 
houses of entertainment personated some particular Russian 
nation, where the dress, music and amusements of that nation 
were represented. All sorts of gymnastic feats were also ex- 
hibited, such as vaulting, tumbling and feats upon the slack 
and tight rope. 

Through such scenes the imperial pleasure party rode, 
until a high mountain appeared through an avenue cut in 
the forest, representing Mount Vesuvius during an eruption. 
Vast billows of flame were rolling to the skies, and the whole 
region was illumined with a blaze of light. The spectators 
had hardly recovered from the astonishment which this dis- 
play caused, when the train suddenly entered a Chinese 
village, which proved to be but the portal to the imperial 
palace of Tzarkoselo. The palace was lighted with an infinite 
number of wax candles. For two hours the guests amused 
themselves with dancing. Suddenly there was a grand dis» 
charge of cannon. The candles were immediately extin- 
guished, and a magnificent display of fireworks, extending 



416 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

along the whole breadth of the palace, converted night into 
day. Again there was a thundering discharge of artillery, 
when, as by enchantment, the candles blazed anew, and a 
sumptuous supper was served up. After the entertainment, 
dancing was renewed, and was continued until morning. 

The empress had a pi-ivate palace at St. Petersburg which 
she called her Hermitage, wiiere she received none but her 
choicest friends. This sumptuous edifice merits some minute- 
ness of description. It consisted of a suite of apartments con- 
taining every thing which the most voluptuous and exquisite 
taste could combine. The spacious building was connected 
with the imperial palace by a covered arch. It would require 
a volume to describe the treasures of art and industry with 
which it abounded. Here the empress had her private library 
and her private picture gallery. Raphael's celebrated gallery 
in the Vatican at Rome was exactly repeated here with the 
most accurate copies of all the paintings, corner pieces and 
other ornaments of the same size and in the same situations. 
Medals, engravings, curious pieces of art, models of mechan- 
ical inventions and collections of specimens of minerals and 
of objects of natural history crowded the cabinets. Chambers 
were arranged for all species of amusements. A pleasure 
garden was constructed upon arches, with furnaces beneath 
them in winter, that the pl^-nts might ever enjoy genial heat. 
This garden was covered with fine brass wire, that the birus 
from all countries, singing among the trees and shrubs, or 
hopping along the grass plots and gravel walks, and which 
the empress was accustomed to feed with her own hand, 
might not escape. While the storms of a Russian winter 
were howling without, the empress here could tread upon 
verdant lawns and gravel walks beneath luxuriant vegetation, 
listening to bird songs and partaking of fruits and flowers of 
every kind. 

In this artificial Eden the empress often received Henry, 
the Prussian prince, and matured her plan for the partition of 



REIGN OF CATHARINE II. 417 

Poland. The festivities which dazzled the eyes of the fiiv- 
clous courtiers were hardly thought of by Catharine and 
Henry. Mr. Richardson, an English gentleman who was in 
the family of Loi'd Cathcart, then the British embassador at 
the Russian court, had sufficient sagacity to detect that, be. 
neath this display of amusements, political intrigues of great 
moment were being woven. He wrote from St. Petersburg, 
on the 1st of January, ITVl, as follows: 

" This city, since the beginning of winter, has exhibited a 
continued scene of festivities; feasts, balls, concerts, plays, 
and masquerades in continued succession ; and all in honor 
of, and to divert his royal highness, Prince Henry of Prussia, 
the famous brother of the present king. Yet his royal high- 
ness does not seem to be much diverted. He looks at them 
as an old cat looks at the gambols of a young kitten ; or as 
one who has higher sport going on in his mind than the pas- 
time of fiddling and dancing. He came here on pretense of 
a friendly visit to the empress; to have the happiness of wait- 
ing on so magnanimous a princess, and to see, with his own 
eyes, the progress of those immense improvements, so highly 
celebrated by Yoltaire and those French writers who receive 
gifts from her majesty. 

" But do you seriously imagine that this creature of skin 
and bone should travel through Sweden, Finland and Poland, 
all for the pleasure of seeing the metropolis and the empress 
of Russia ? Other princes may pursue such pastime ; but the 
princes of the house of Brandenburg fly at a nobler quarry. 
Or is the King of Prussia, as a tame spectator, to reap no 
advantage from the troubles in Poland and the Turkish 
war ? What is the meaning of his late conferences with the 
Emperor of Germany ? Depend upon it these planetary con- 
junctions are the forerunners of great events, A few months 
may unfold the secret. You will recollect the signs when, 
after this, you shall hear of changes, usurpations and revolu- 

tions." 

18* 



41 8 THE EMPIEE OP RUSSIA. 

In one of these interviews, in which the dismemberment 
of Poland was resolved on, Catharine said, 

*' I will frighten Turkey and flatter England. Do you 
take it upon yourself to buy over Austria, and amuse France." 

Though the arrangements for the partition were at this 
time all made, the portion which was to be assigned to Aus- 
tria agreed upon, and the extent of territory which each was 
to appropriate to itself settled, the formal treaty was not 
signed till two years afterwards. 

The war still continued to rage on the frontiers of Tur- 
key. After ten months of almost incessant slaughter, the Turk- 
ish army was nearly destroyed. The empress collected two 
squadrons of Russian men-of-war at Archangel on the White 
Sea, and at Revel on the Baltic, and sent them through the 
straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, All Europe was 
astonished at this wonderful apparition suddenly presenting 
itself amidst the islands of the Archipelago. The inhabitants 
of the Greek islands were encouraged to rise, and they drove 
out their Mussulman oppressors w4th great slaughter. Catlia- 
rine was alike victorious on the land and on the sea; and she 
began very seriously to contemplate driving the Turks out of 
Europe and taking possession of Constantinople, Her land 
troops speedily overran the immense provinces of Bessarabia, 
Moldavia and Wallachia, and annexed them to the Russian 
empire. 

The Turkish fleet encountered the Russians in the narrow 
channel which separates the island of Scio from Natolia. In 
one of the fiercest naval battles on record, and which raged 
for five hours, the Turkish fleet was entirely destroyed. A 
courier was instantly dispatched to St. Petersburg with the 
exultant tidings. The rejoicings in St. Petersburg, over this 
naval victory, were unbounded. The empress was so elated 
that she resolved to liberate both Greece and Egypt from the 
Bway of the Turks. The Turks were in a terrible panic, and 
resorted to the most desperate measures to defend the Dar- 



EEIGN OF CATHARINE II. 419 

danelles, that the Russian fleet might not ascend to Constan- 
tinople. At the same time the plague broke out in Constan- 
tin)ple with horrible violence, a thousand dying daily, for 
several weeks. 

The immense Crimean peninsula contains fifteen thousand 
square miles, being twice as large as the State of Massa- 
chusetts. The isthmus of Perikop, which connects it with the 
mainland, is but five miles in width. The Turks had forti- 
fied this passage by a ditch seventy-two feet wide, and forty- 
two feet deep, and had stationed along this line an army of 
fifty thousand Tartars. But the Russians forced the barrier, 
and the Crimea became a Russian province. The victorious 
army, however, soon encountered a foe whom no courage 
could vanquish. The plague broke out in their camp, and 
spread through all Russia, with desolation which seems in- 
credible, although well authenticated. In Moscow, not more 
than one fourth of the inhabitants were left alive. More 
than sixty thousand died in that city in less than a year. 
For days the dead lay in the streets where they had fallen, 
there not being carts or people enough to carry them away. 
The pestilence gradually subsided before the intensity of win- 
try frosts. 

The devastations of war and of the plague rendered both 
the Russians and Turks desirous of peace. On the 2d of 
August, 1772, the Russian and Turkish plenipotentiaries met 
under tents, on a plain about nineteen miles north of Bu- 
charest, the capital of Wallachia. The Russian ministers ap- 
proached in four grand coaches, preceded by hussars, and 
attended by one hundred and sixty servants in livery. The 
Turkish ministers came on horseback, with about sixty serv- 
ants, all dressed in great simplicity. The two parties, how- 
ever, could not agree, and the conference was broken up. 
The negotiations were soon resumed at Bucharest, but this 
attempt was also equally unsuccessful with the first. 

The plot for the partition of Poland was now ripe. Rus 



420 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

sia, Prussia and Austria had agreed to march their armies 
into the kingdom and dixide a very large portion of the 
territory between them. * It was as liigh-handtd a robbery 
as the world ever witnessed. There is some consolation, 
however, in the reflection, that the masses of the people in 
Poland were quite unaffected by the change. They were no 
more oppressed by their new despots than they had been 
for ages by their old ones. By this act, Russia annexed to 
her territory the enormous addition of three thousand four 
hundred and forty square leagues, sparsely inhabited, indeed, 
yet containing a population of one million five hundred thou- 
sand. Austria obtained less territory, but nearly twice as 
many inhabitants. Prussia obtained the contiguous prov- 
inces she coveted, wdth about nine hundred thousand inhab- 
itants. They still left to the King of Poland, in this first 
partition, a small fragment of his kingdom. The King of 
Prussia removed from his portion the first year twelve thou- 
sand families, who w^ere sent to populate the uninhabited 
wilds of his hereditary dominions. All tlie young men 
were seized and sent to the Prussian army. The same 
general course was pursued by RiA>sia. That the Polish 
population might be incorporated with that of Russia, and 
all national individuality lost, the Poles were removed into 
ancient Russia, while whole provinces of Russians were sent 
to populate Poland. 

The vast wealth which at this time the Russian court was 
able to extort from labor, may be inferred from the fact, that 
while the empress was carrying on the most expensive wars, 
her disbursements to favorites, generals and literary men — in 
encouraging the arts, purchasing libraries, pictures, statues, an- 
tiques and jewels, vastly exceeded that of any European prince 
excepting Louis XIY. A diamond of very large size and 
purity, weighing seven hundred and seventy-nine carats, was 
brought from Ispahan by a Greek. Catharine purchased it 
for five hundred thousand dollars, settling at the same time 



REIGN OF CATHAEIXE II. 421 

a pension of five thousand dollars for life, upon the fortunate 
Greek of whom she bought it. 

The war still raged fiercely in Turkey with the usual vi- 
cissitudes of battles. The Danube at length became the 
boundary between the hostile armies, its wide expanse of 
water, its islands and its wooded shores affording endless op- 
portunity for surprises, ambuscades, flight and pursuit. Un- 
der these circumstances war was prosecuted with an enor- 
mous loss of life ; but as the wasting armies were continually 
being replenished, it seemed as though there could be no end 
to the strife. 

Catharine had for some time been meditatinoj a marriasre 
for her son, the Grand Duke Paul. There was a grand duchy 
in Germany, on the Rhine, almost equally divided by that 
stream, called Darmstadt. It contained three thousand nine 
hundred square miles, being about half the size of the State 
of Massachusetts, and embraced a population of nearly a 
million. The Duke of Darmstadt had three very attractive 
daughters, either one of whom, Catharine thought, would 
make a very suitable match for her son. She accordingly 
invited the three young ladies, with their mother, to visit 
her court, that her son might, after a careful scrutiny, take 
his pick. The brilliance of the prospective match with the 
tzar of all the Russias outweighed every scruple, and the 
invitation was eagerly acceptd. Paul was cold as an iceberg, 
stubborn as a mule and crack-brained, but he could place on 
the brow of his spouse the crown of an empress. Catharine 
received her guests with the greatest magnificence, loaded 
them with presents, and finally chose one of them, Wilhel- 
mina, for the bride of Paul. The marriage was solemnized 
on the 10th of November, 1773, with all the splendor with 
which the Russian court could invest the occasion, the festivi- 
ties being continued from the 10th to the 21st of the month. 

Catharine, 'With her own hand, kept up a regular corre- 
spondence with many literary and scientific men in other parts 



422 THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

of Europe, particularly with Yoltaire and Diderot, the illus« 
trious philosophers of France. Several times she sent them 
earnest invitations to visit her court. Diderot accepted her 
invitation, and was received with confiding and friendly at- 
tentions which no merely crowned head could have secured. 
Diderot sat at the table of the empress, and daily held long 
social interviews with her, conversing upon politics, philoso- 
phy, legislation, freedom of conscience and the rights of nations. 
Catharine was charmed with the enthusiasm and eloquence of 
her guest, but she perfectly appreciated the genius and the 
puerility combined in his character. 

" Diderot," said she, " is a hundred years old in many 
respects, but in others he is no more than ten." 

The following letter from Catharine to Diderot, Avritten 
with all the freedom of the most confidential correspondence, 
gives a clearer view of the character of Catharine's mind, ana 
of her energy, than any descrii^tion could give. 

" Now we are speaking of haughtiness, I have a mind to 
make a general confession to you on that head. I have had 
great successes during this war ; that I am glad of it, you 
will very naturally conclude. I find that Russia will be well 
known by this war. It will be seen how* indefatigable a na- 
tion it is; that she possesses men of eminent merit, and who 
have all the qualities which go to the forming of heroes. It 
will be seen that she is deficient in no resources, but that she 
can defend herself and prosecute a war with vigor whenever 
she is unjustly attacked. 

"Brimful of these ideas, I have never once thought of Cath- 
arine, who, at the age of forty-two, can increase neither in 
body nor in mind, but, in the natural order of things, ought 
to remain, and will remain, as she is. Do her affairs go on 
well ? she says, so much the better. If they prosper less, 
she would employ all her faculties to put them in a better 
train. 

" This is my ambition, and I have none other. What I 



REIGN OF CATHARINE II. 423 

tell you, is the truth. I will go further, and say that, for the 
sparing of human blood, I sincerely wish for peace. But 
this peace is still a long way off, though the Turks, from dif- 
ferent motives, are ardently desirous of it. Those people 
know not how to go about it. 

"I wish as much for the pacification of the unreasonable 
contentions of Poland. I have to do there with brainless 
heads, each of which, instead of contributing to the common 
peace, on the contrary, throws impediments in the way of it 
by caprice and levity. My embassador has published a decla- 
ration adapted to open their eyes. But it is to be presumed 
that they will rather expose themselves to the last extremity 
than adopt, without delay, a wise and consistent rule of con- 
duct. The vortices of Descartes never existed anywhere but 
in Poland. There every head is a vortex turning continually 
around itself. It is stopped by chance alone, and never by 
reason or judgment. 

"I have not yet received your Questio?is,* or your watch- 
es fi'om Ferney. I have no doubt that the work of your arti- 
ficers is perfect, since they work under your eyes. Do not 
scold your rustics for having sent me a surplus of watches. 
The expense of them will not ruin me. It would be very 
unfortunate for me if I were so far reduced as not to have, for 
sudden emergencies, such small sums whenever I want them. 
Judge not, I beseech you, of our finances by those of the 
other ruined potentates of Europe. Though we have been 
engaged in war for three years, we proceed in our buildings, 
and every thing else goes on as in a time of profound peace. 
It is two years since any new impost was levied. The war, 
at present, has its fixed establishment ; that once regulated, 
it never disturbs the course of other affairs. If we capture 
another Kesa or two, the war is paid for, 

"I shall be satisfied with myself whenever I meet with 
your approbation, monsieur. I likewise, a few weeks ago, 
* Questions sur TEncycIopedie. 



424 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

read over again my instructions for the code, because I then 
thouglit peace to be nearer at hand than it is, and I found 
that I was right in composing them. I confess that this code 
will give me a considerable deal of trouble before it is brought 
to that degree of perfection at which I wish to see it. But 
no matter, it must be completed. 

"Perhaps, in a little time, the khan of the Crimea will be 
brought to me in person. I learn, this moment, that he did 
not cross the sea with the Turks, but that he remained in the 
mountains with a very small number of followers, nearly as 
was the case with the Pretender, in Scotland, after the defeat 
at CuUoden. If he comes to me, we will try to polish him 
this winter, and, to take my revenge of him, I will make him 
dance, and he shall go to the French comedy. 

"Just as I was about to fold up this letter, I received 
yours of the 10th of July, in which you inform me of the 
adventure that happened to my ' Instruction'* in France. 
I knew that anecdote, and even the appendix to it, in conse- 
quence of the order of the Duke of Choiseul. I own that I 
laughed on reading it in the newspapers, and I found that I 
was amply revenged." 

* Her majesty's instruction for a code of lawa. 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

REiaN OF CATHAEINE II. 

From ITU to 1781. 

i*EACE WITH TtTEKET. — COXJRT OF CATHARINE II. — HeK PeRSOXAL ApPEARANOB AND 

Habits. — Conspiracy and Eebellion. — Defeat of the Eebels. — Magnanimits 
OP Catharine II. — Ambition of the Empress. — Court Favorite. — Division op 
KirssiA into Provinces. — Internal Improvements. — New Partition of Poland. 
— Death of the Wife of Paul. — Second Marriare op the Grand Duke. — Splen- 
dor OF THE Russian Court. — Russia and Austria Secretly Combine to Dkivk 
THE Turks out of Europe,— The Emperor Joseph II. 

IN 1774 peace was concluded with Turkey, on terras which 
added greatly to the renown and grandeur of Russia. By 
this treaty the Crimea was severed from the Ottoman Porte, 
and declared to be independent. Russia obtained the free 
navigation of the Black Sea, the Bosporus and the Darda- 
nelles. Immense tracts of land, lying on the Euxine, were 
ceded to Russia, and the Grand Seignior also paid Catharine a 
large sum of money to defray the expenses of the war. No 
language can describe the exultation which this treaty created 
in St. Petersburg. Eight days were devoted, by order of the 
empress, to feasts and rejoicings. The doors of the prisons 
were thrown open, and even the Siberian exiles were per- 
mitted to return. 

The court of Catharine II. at this period was the most 
briUiant in Europe. In no other court was more attention 
paid to the most polished and agreeable manners. The ex- 
penditure on'her court establishment amounted to nearly four 
millions of dollars a year. In personal appearance the empress 
was endowed with the attractions both of beauty and of 
queenly dignity. A cotemporary writer thus describes her: 



426 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

** She is of that stature which is necessarily requisite tc 
perfect elegance of form in a lady. She has fine large blue 
eyes, with eyebrows and hair of a brownish color. Her mouth 
is well-proportioned, chin round, with a forehead regular and 
open. Her hands and arms are round and white, and her 
figure plump. Her bosom is full, her neck high, and she car 
ries her head with peculiar grace. 

" The empress never wears rich clothes except on solemn 
festivals, w^hen her head and corset are entirely set with bril- 
liants, and she wears a crown of diamonds and precious stones. 
Her gait is majestic; and, in the whole of her form and man- 
ner there is something so dignified and noble, that if she were 
to be seen without ornament or any outward marks of distinc- 
tion, among a great number of ladies of rank, she would be 
immediately esteemed the chief. She seems born to command, 
though in her character there is more of liveliness than of 
gravity. She is courteous, gentle, benevolent and outwardly 
devout." 

Like almost every one who has attained distinction, Cath- 
aiine was very systematic in the employment of her time. She 
usually rose at about five o'clock both in summer and w^inter ; 
and what seems most remarkable, prepared her own simple 
breakfast, as she was not fond of being waited upon. But a 
short time was devoted to her toilet. From eight to eleven 
in the forenoon she was busy in her cabinet, signing commis- 
sions and issuing orders of various purport. The hour, from 
eleven to twelve, was daily devoted to divine worship in her 
chapel. Then, until one o'clock, she gave audience to the 
ministers of the various departments. From half past one till 
two she dined. She then returned to her cabinet, where she 
was busily employed in cares of state until four o'clock, when 
she took an airing in a coach or sledge. At six she usually 
exhibited herself for a short time to her subjects at the thea- 
ter, and at ten o'clock she retired. Court balls were not un- 
frequently given, but the empress never condescended to 



REIGN OF CATHARINE II 427 

dance, though occasionally she would make one at a game of 
cards. She, however, took but little interest in the game, 
being much more fond of talking with the ladies, generals and 
ministers who surrounded her. Even from these court balls 
the very sensible empress usually retired, by a slide door, at 
ten o'clock. 

The empress informed herself minutely of every thing 
which concerned the administration of government. Her 
ministers were merely instruments in her hands executing her 
imperial will. All matters relating to the army, the navy, the 
finances, the punishment of crime and to foreign aflairs, were 
reported to her by her ministers, and were guided by her de- 
cisions. 

There must always be, in every government, an opposition 
party — that is, a party who wish to eject from office those in 
power, that they themselves may enjoy the loaves and fishes 
of governmental favor. This is peculiarly the case in an em- 
pire where a large class of haughty nobles are struggling for 
the preeminence. Many of the bigoted clergy were exasper- 
ated by the toleration which the empress enjoined, and they 
united with the disafi'ected lords in a conspiracy for a revolu- 
tion. The clergy in the provinces had great influence over 
the unlettered boors, and the conspiracy soon assumed a very 
threatening aspect. The first rising of rebellion was by the 
wild population scattered along the banks of the Don. The 
rebellion was headed by an impostor, who declared that he 
was Peter III., and that, having escaped from those who had 
attempted his assassination, he had concealed himself for a 
long time, waiting for vengeance. This barbaric chieftain, 
who was called Pugatslief, very soon found himself at the 
head of fourteen thousand fierce warriors, and commenced 
ravaging oriental Russia. For a season his march was a 
constant victory. Many thousand Siberian exiles escaped 
from their gloomy realms and joined his standards. So as- 
tonishing was his success, that even Catharine trembled, 



428 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Pugatshef waged a war of extermination against the nobles 
who were the supporters of Catharine, in cold blood behead- 
ing their wives and children, and conferring their titles and 
estates upon his followers. The empress found it necessary 
to rouse all her energies to meet this peril. She issued a 
manifesto, which was circulated through all the towns of 
the empire, and raised a large army, which was dispatched 
to crush the rebellion. Battle after battle ensued, until, at 
last, in a decisive conflict, the hosts of Pugatshef were utterly 
cut up. 

Still, this indefatigable warrior soon raised another army 
from the untamed barbarians of the Don, and, rapidly de- 
scending the Volga, attacked, by surprise, some Russian 
regiments encamped upon its banks, and routed them with 
fearful slaughter. The astronomer, Lovitch, a member of 
the imperial academy of sciences at St. Petersburg, Avas, at 
that time, under the protection of these regiments, surveying 
the route for a canal between the Don and the Volga. Pu- 
gatshef ordered his dragoons to thrust their pikes into the 
unfortunate man, and raise him upon them into the air, " in 
order," said he, " that he may be nearer the stars." They 
did this, and then cut him to pieces with their sabers. 

The troops of Catharine pursued the rebels, encountered 
them in some intricate passes of the mountains, whence es- 
cape was impossible, and overwhelmed them with destruction. 
Their vigorous leader, leaping from crag to crag, escaped, 
swam the Volga, crossed, in solitude, vast deserts, and made 
new attempts to rally partisans around him. But his last 
hour was sounded. Deserted by all, he was wandering from 
place to place, pursued like a wild beast, when some of his own 
confederates, basely betraying him, seized him, after a violent 
struggle, put him in irons, and delivered him to one of the 
officers of the Russian army. The wretched man, preserving 
impenetrable silence, was conveyed to Moscow in an iron 
cage. Refusing to eat, food was forced down his stomach. 



REIGN OF CATH A.EIXE II. 429 

The empress immediately appointed a commission for the 
trial of the rebel. She instructed the court to be satisfied V 
with whatever voluntary confession of his crime he might 
make, forbidding them to apply the torture, or to require 
him to name his accomplices. The culprit was sentenced to 
have his hands and feet cut off, and then to be quartered. 
By order of the empress, however, he was first beheaded. 
Eight of his accomplices were also executed, eighteen under- 
went the knout, and were then exiled to Siberia. Thus ter- 
minated a rebellion which cost the lives of more than a hun- 
dred thousand men. 

Over those wide regions, whose exact boundaries are even 
now scarcely known, numerous nations are scattered, quite 
distinct in language, religion and customs, and so separated 
by almost impassable deserts, that they know but little of each 
other. These wilds, peopled by war-loving races, afford the 
most attractive field for military adventures. The energy and 
sagacity with which Catharine crushed this formidable rebel- 
lion added greatly to her renown. Tranquillity being restored, 
the empress, in order to crown a general pardon, forbade any 
further allusion whatever to be made to the rebellion, consign- 
ing all its painful events to utter oblivion. She even forbade 
the publication of the details of the trial, saying, 

" I shall keep the depositions of Pugatshef secret, that 
they may not aggravate the disgrace of those who spurred 
him on." 

The empress was ambitious to make her influence felt in 
every European movement, and she was conscious that, in 
order to .command the respect of other courts, she must 
ever have a formidable army at her disposal. In all the 
great movements of kings and courts this wonderful woman 
performed her part with dignity which no monarch, male 
or female, has ever surpassed. It is strange that it lias 
taken so many centuries for the nations to learn that peace, i 
not war, enriches realms. Had Russia abstained from those 



^ 



430 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

wars in which she has unnecessarily engaged, she might 
now have been the most wealthy and powerful nation on 
the globe. Admitting that there have been many wars 
which, involving her national existence, she could not 
have avoided, still she has squandered countless millions of 
money and of lives in battles which were quite unnecessary. 
Russia, like the United States, is safe from all attacks from 
without. Had Russia employed the yearly earnings of the 
empire in cultivating the fields, rearing towns, and in extend- 
ing the arts of industry and refinement, infinitely more would 
have been accomplished for her happiness and renown than by 
the most brilliant conquests. But Catharine, in her high am- 
bition, seemed to be afraid that Europe might forget her, and 
she was eager to have her voice heard in the deliberations of 
every cabinet, and to have her banners unfurled in the march 
of every army. 

There was an oflice, in the court of the empress^ sanctioned 
by time in Russia, which has not existed in any other court in 
Europe. It perhaps originated from the fact that for about 
three fourths of a century Russia was almost exclusively gov- 
erned by women. The court favorite was not merely the 
prime minister, but the confidential friend and companion of 
the empress. On the day of his installation he received a purse 
containing one hundred thousand dollars, and a salary of 
twelve thousand dollars a month. A marshal was also com- 
missioned to provide him a table of twenty-four covers, and 
to defray all the expenses of his household. The twelve thou- 
sand dollars a month were for what the ladies call pin money. 
The favorite occupied in the palace an apartment beneath that 
of the empress, to which it communicated by a private stair- 
case. He attended the empress on all parties of amusement, 
at the opera, the theater, balls, promenades and excui-sions of 
pleasure, and he was not allowed to leave the palace without 
express permission. It was also understood that he should 
pay no attention to any lady but the empress. 



REIGN OF CATHAHINE II. 431 

The year 1775 dawned upon Russia with peace at home 
and abroad. Catharine devoted herself anew to the improve- 
ment of her subjects in education and all physical comforts. 
Prince Gregory Orlof had been for many years the favorite 
of the empress, but he was now laid aside, and Count Potem- 
kin took his place. 

Catharine now divided her extensive realms into forty- 
three great provinces, over each of which a governor was 
appointed. These provinces embraced from six to eight hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants. There was then a subdivision into 
( districts or circles, as they w^ere called. There were some ten 
of these districts in each province, and they contained from 
forty to sixty thousand inhabitants. An entire system of 
government was established for each province, with its laws 
and tribunals, that provision might be made for every thing es- 
sential to the improvement and embelhshment of the country. 
The governors of these provinces ^vere invested with great 
dignity and splendor. The gubernatorial courts, if they may 
so be called, established centers of elegance and refinement, 
which it was hoped would exert a powerful influence in polish- 
ing a people exceedingly rude and uncultivated. There were 
also immense advantages derived from the uniform adminis- 
tration of justice thus established. This new division of the 
empire was the most comprehensive reform Russia had ye^; 
experienced. Thus the most extensive empire on the globe, 
with its geographical divisions so vast and dissimilar, was 
cemented into one homogeneous body politic. 

Until this great reform the inhabitants of the most distant 
provinces had been compelled to travel to Petersburg and 
Moscow in their appeals to the tribunals of justice. Now 
there were superior courts in all the provinces, and inferior 
courts in all the districts. In all important cases there w^as 
an appeal to the council of the empress. Russian ships, laden 
with the luxuries of the Mediterranean, passed through the 
Dardanelles and the Bosporus, and landed their precious 



432 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

freights upon the shores of Azof, from whence they were trans- 
ported into the heart of Russia, thus opening a very hicrative 
commerce. 

The Polish nobles, a very turbulent and intractable race 
of men, were overawed by the power of Catharine, and the 
masses of the Polish people were doubtless benefited by their 
transference to new masters. Russia was far more benignant 
in its treatment of the conquered provinces, than w^ere her 
banditti accomplices, Prussia and Austria. 

The road to China, traversed by caravans, was long and 
perilous, through pathless and inhospitable wilds, where, for 
leagues, no inhabitant could be seen, and yet where a fertile 
soil and a genial clime promised, to the hand of industry, all 
the comforts and luxuries of life. All along this road she 
planted villages, and, by the most alluring offers, induced 
settlers to establish themselves on all portions of the route. 
Large sums of money were expended in rendering the rivers 
navigable. 

In the year 1776, the grand duchess, consort of Paul, who 
was heir to the throne, died in childbirth, and was buried in 
the same grave with her babe. About the same time Prince 
Henry of Prussia visited the Russian court to confer with 
Catharine upon some difficulties which had arisen in the de- 
marcations of Poland. It will be remembered that in the 
division which had now taken place, the whole kingdom had 
not been seized, but a remnant had been left as the humble 
patrimony of Poniatowski, the king. In this interview with 
the empress, Prince Henry said, 

" Madam, I see one sure method of obviating all difficulty. 
It may perhaps be displeasing to you on account of Ponia- 
towski.* But you will nevertheless do well to give it your ap- 
probation, since compensations may be offered to that monarch 
of greater value to him than the throne which is continually 

♦ Poniatowski had been formerly a favorite of the empress. 



REIGN OF CATHARINE II. 433 

tottering under him. The remainder of Poland must be par- 
titioned." 

The empress cordially embraced the plan, and the annihi- 
lation of Poland was decreed. It was necessary to move 
slowly and with caution in the execution of the plan. In the 
meantime, as the grand duchess had died, leaving no heir to 
the empire, the empress deemed it a matter of the utmost 
moment to secure another wife for the Grand Duke Paul, lest 
Russia should be exposed to the perils of a disputed succes- 
sion. Natalia was hardly cold in her grave ere the empress 
proposed to Prince Henry, that his niece, the princess of Wir- 
temberg, should become the spouse of the grand duke. The 
princess was already betrothed to the hereditary prince of 
Hesse Darmstadt, but both Henry and his imperial brother, 
Frederic of Prussia, deemed the marriage of their niece with 
the prospective Emperor of Russia a match far too brilliant 
to be thwarted by so slight an obstacle. Frederic himself in- 
formed the prince of the exalted offer which had been made 
10 his betrothed, and without much difficulty secured his re- 
linquishment of his contemplated bride. Frederic deemed it 
a matter of infinite moment that the ties subsistinor between 
Russia and Prussia should be more closely drawn. He wrote 
to his brother Henry of his success, and by the same courier 
invited the Grand Duke Paul to visit Berlin that he might see 
the new spouse designed for him. He also expressed his own 
ardent desire to become acquainted with the grand duke. 

Catharine, highly gratified with this success, placed a purse 
of fifty thousand dollars in the hands of her son to defray the 
expenses of his journey. It was at the close of the summer 
of 1776 when the grand duke left the palaces of St. Peters- 
burg to visit tiiose of Berlin. His mother, who made all the 
arrangements, dispatched her son on this visit in a style of 
regal splendor. When the party reached Riga, a courier 
overtook them with the following characteristic letter, writ- 
ten by tlie emi)ress's own hand to Pi-ince Henry: 

19 



434 THE EM PIKE OF RUSSIA. 

"June 11, 1776. 

" I take the liberty of transmitting to your royal highness 
the four letters of which I spoke to you, and which you prom- 
ised to take care of. The first is for the king, your brother, 
and the others for the prince and princesses of Wirtemberg. 
I venture to pray you, that if my son should bestow his heart 
on the Princess Soj^hia, as I have no doubt but what he will, 
to deliver the three letters according to their directions, and 
to support the contents of them with that persuasive elo- 
quence with which God has endowed you. 

"The convincing and reiterated proofs which you have 
given me of your friendship, the high esteem which I have 
conceived for your virtues, and the extent of the confidence 
which you have taught me to repose in you, leave me no 
doubt on the success of a business which I have so much at 
heart. Was it possible for me to place it in better hands ? 

" Your royal highness is surely an unique in the art of 
negotiation. Pardon me that expression of my friendship. 
But I think that there has never been an affair of this nature 
transacted as this is ; which is the production of the most in- 
timate friendship and confidence. 

"That princess will be the pledge of it. I shall not be 
able to see her without recollecting in what manner this 
business was begun, continued and terminated, between the 
royal house of Prussia and that of Russia. May it perpetu- 
ate the connections which unite us ! 

"1 conclude by very tenderly thanking your royal highness 
for all the cares and all the troubles you have given yourself; 
and I beseech you to be assured that my gratitude, my friend- 
ship, my esteem, and the high consideration which I have for 
you, will terminate only with my life. 

" Cathaeine.'* 

The Grand Duke Paul was received in Berlin with all the 
honors due his rank as heir to the imperial throne of Russia. 
The great Frederic even came to the door of his apartment 



EEIGN OF CATHARINE II. 435 

to greet his guest. The grand duke was escorted into the 
city with much pomp. Thirty-four trumpeters, winding their 
bugles, preceded him, all in rich uniform. Then came a 
strong array of soldiers. These were followed by a civic 
procession, in brilliant decorations. Three superb state 
coaches, containing the dignitaries of Berlin, came next in 
the train, followed by a detachment of the life-guards, who 
preceded the magnificent chariot of the duke, which chariot 
was regarded as the most superb which had then ever been 
seen, and which was drawn by eight of the finest horses 
Prussia could produce. This carriage conveyed Paul and 
Prince Henry. A hundred dragoons, as a guard of honor, 
closed the procession. At the gates of the city the magis- 
tracy received Paul beneath a triumphal arch, where seventy 
beautiful girls, dressed like nymphs and shepherdesses, pre- 
sented the grand duke with complimentary verses, and 
crowned him with a garland of flowers. The ringing of bells, 
the pealing of cannon, strains of martial music, and the ac- 
clamations of the multitude, greeted Paul from the time he 
entered the gates until he reached the royal pal'ace. 

"Sire," exclaimed Paul, as he took the hand of the King 
of Prussia, "the motives which bring me from the extremities 
of the North to these happy dominions, are the desire of as- 
suring your majesty of the friendship and alliance to subsist 
henceforth and for ever between Russia and Prussia, and the 
eagerness to see a princess destined to ascend the throne of 
the Russian empire. By my receiving her at your hands, I 
assure you that she will be more dear to myself and to the 
nation over which she is to reign. It has also been one of tlie 
most ardent aspn-ations of my soul to contem})late the gieat- 
est of heroes, the admiration of our age and the astonishment 
of posterity." 

Here the king interrupted him, replying, 

" Instead of which, you behold a hoary-headed valitudina- 
rian, who could never have wished for a superior happiness 



430 THE EMPIKE OF RUSSIA. 

than that of welcoming within these walls the hopeful heir of 
a mighty empire, the only son of my best friend, Catharine." 

After half an hour's conversation, the grand duke was led 
into the apartment of the queen, where the court was assem- 
bled. Here he was introduced to his contemplated bride, 
Sophia, Princess of Wirtemberg, and immediately, in the 
name of the Empress of Russia, demanded her in marriage 
ot* the grand duke. The marriage contract was signed the 
same day. The whole company then supped with the queen 
in great magnificence. Feasts and entertainments succeeded 
for many days without interruption. 

On the 3d of August, Paul returned to St. Petersburg, 
where his affianced bride soon joined him. As he took leave, 
the King of Prussia presented him with dessert service and a 
coffee service, with ten porcelain vases of Berlin manufacture, 
a ring, containing the king's portrait, surmounted with a dia- 
mond valued at thirty thousand crowns, and also a stud of 
Prussian horses and four pieces of rich tapestry. Upon the 
arrival of the princess, she was received into the Greek 
church, assuming the name of Maria, by which she was ever 
after called. The marriage soon took place, and from this 
marriage arose the two distinguished emperors, Alexander 
and Nicholas. 

The empress was exceedingly gratified by the successful 
accomplishment of this plan. With energy wliich seemed 
never to tire, she urged forward her plans for national im- 
provements, establishing schools all over the empire, which 
were munificently supported at the imperial expense. The 
splendor of the Russian court, during the reign of Catharine, 
surpassed all ordinary powers of description. Almost bound- 
less wealth was lavished upon gorgeous dresses — lords and 
ladies glittering alike in most costly jewelry. Many cour 
tiers appeared almost literally covered with diamonds. They 
sparkled, in most lavish profusion, upon their buttons, their 
buckles, the scabbards of their swords, their epaulets, and 



EEIGN OF CATHARINE II. 43"? 

many even wore a triple row as a band around the hat. 
Frequently eight thousand tickets were given out for a ball 
at the palace, and yet there was no crowd, for twenty saloons, 
of magnificent dimensions, brilliantly lighted, aflforded room 
for all. Her majesty usually entered the saloons about seven 
o'clock, and retired about ten. 

The empress never ceased to look with a wistful eye upon 
the regions which the Turks had wrested from the Christians. 
The commercial greatness of Russia, in her view, imperiously 
required that Constantinople and its adjacent shores should 
be in her possession. In May, 1780, Catharine had an inter- 
view with Joseph II., Emperor of Germany, at Mohilef. Both 
sovereigns traveled with great pomp to meet at this place. 
After several confidential interviews, they agreed to unite 
their forces to drive the Turks out of Europe, and to share 
the spoil between them. It was also agreed to reestablish 
the ancient republics of Greece. The emperor, Joseph II., 
received an earnest invitation to visit Moscow, which he ac- 
cepted, but, with characteristic eccentricity, refused to travel 
with the queen, as he was excessively annoyed by the tram- 
mels of etiquette and ceremonial pomp. The empress, conse- 
quently, returned to St. Petersburg, and Joseph II. set out 
for Moscow in the following fashion : 

Leaving his carriages with his suite to follow, he pro- 
ceeded alone, iiicognito^ on horse-back, as the avant courier. 
At each station he would announce that his master the em- 
peror, with the imperial carriages, was coming on, and that 
dinner, supper or lodgings must be provided for so many 
persons. Calling for a slice of ham and a cup of beer, he 
would throw himself upon a bench for a few hours' repose, 
constantly refusing to take a bed, as the expedition he must 
make would not allow this indulgence. 

At Mohilef, the empress had provided magnificent apart- 
ments, in the palace, for the emperor ; but he insisted upon 
taking lodgings at an ordinary inn. At St. Petersburg, not- 



438 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

withstanding the emperor's repugnance to pomp, Catharine 
received hira with entertainments of the greatest magnificence. 
Joseph, however, took but little interest in such displays, 
devoting his attention almost exclusively to useful establish- 
ments and monuments of art. He was surprised to find at 
Tula, manufictoiies of hardware unsurpassed by those of 
Sheffield and Birmingham. He expressed his surprise, on his 
return home, at the mixture of refinement and barbarism 
Russia had presented to his view. 

The empress, seeing that so many princes visited foreign 
countries, decided to send her son Paul, with Maria, to make 
the tour of Europe. Obedient to the maternal commands, 
they commenced their travels through Poland and Austria to 
Italy, and retui-ned to St. Petersburg, through France and 
Holland, after an absence of fourteen months. The empress 
had a confidential agent in their company, who kept her in- 
formed, minutely, of every event which transpired. A cour- 
ier was dispatched every day to inform her where they were 
and how they were employed. 

The relations between Turkey and Russia were contin- 
ually growing more threatening. Turkey had been compelled 
to yield the Crimea, and also to surrender the navigation of 
the Euxine, with the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, to her 
powerful rival. Galled by these concessions, which had been 
forced upon her by bullet and bayonet, the Ottoman Porte 
was ever watching to regain her lost power. Russia, instead 
of being satisfied with her acquisitions, was eagerly grasping 
at more. The Greek Christians also, throughout the Turkish 
empire, hating their Mussulman oppressoi's, were ever watch- 
ing for opportunities when they could shake off the burden 
and the insult of slavery. Thus peace between Russia and 
Turkey was never more than an armistice. The two powers 
constantly faced each other in a hostile attitude, ever ready 
to appeal to arms. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

TERMINATION OF THE REIG-N OF CATHARINE II. 

From 1781 to 1786. 

Statue of Peter the Great. — Alliance between Attstria and Russia. — Independ- 
ence OF the Crimea. — The Khan of the Crimea. — Vast Preparations for "War. 
— National Jealousies. — Tolerant Spirit of Catharine. — Magnificent Excur- 
sion to the Crimea. — Commencement ok Hostilities. — Anecdote of Paul. — 
Peace. — New Partition of Poland. — Treaty with Austria and France. — Hos- 
tility to Liberty in France. — Death of Catharine. — Her Character. 

/CATHARINE found time, amidst all the cares of empire, 
^ to devote special attention to the education of her grand- 
children Alexander and Constantine, who had been born dur- 
ing the five years which had now elapsed since the marriage 
of Paul and Maria. For their instruction as they advanced 
in years, she wrote several historical and moral essays of no 
small merit. The " Tales of Chlor, Son of the Tzar," and 
"The Little Samoyede," are beautiful compositions from 
her pen, alike attractive to the mature and the youthful mind. 
The histories and essays she wrote for these children have 
since been collected and printed in French, under the title of 
" Bibliotheque des grands-ducs Alexandre et Constantin." 

The empress, about this time, resolved to erect, in St. 
Petersburg, a statue of Peter the Great, which should be 
worthy of his renown. A French artist, M. Falconet, was 
engaged to execute this important work. He conceived the 
design of having, for a pedestal, a rugged rock, to indicate 
the rude and unpolished character of the people to whom 
the emperor had introduced so many of the arts of civiliza- 
tion. Immediate search was made to find a suitable rock. 



440 THE EMPTEE OF RCTSSIA. 

About eight miles from the city a huge boulder was dis- 
covered, forty-two feet long, thirty-four feet broad, and 
twenty-one feet high. It was found, by geometric calcula- 
tion, that this enormous mass weighed three millions two 
hundred thousand pounds. It was necessary to transport 
it over heights and across morasses to the Neva, and there 
to float it down to the place of its destination. The boulder 
lay imbedded a few feet in the ground, absolutely detached 
from all other rock, and with no similar substance anywhere 
in the vicinity. 

It would seem impossible that a mass so stupendous could 
be moved. But difficulties only roused the energies of Cath- 
arine. In the tirst place, a solid road was made for its pas- 
sage. After four months* labor, with very ingenious machinery, 
the rock was so far raised as to enable them to slip under it 
heavy plates of brass, which rested upon cannon balls tive 
inches in diameter, and which balls ran in grooves of solid 
metal. Then, by windlasses, worked by four hundred men, 
it was slowly forced along its way. Having arrived at the 
Neva, is was floated down the river by Avhat are called 
camels, that is immense floating fabrics constructed with air 
chambers so as to render them very buoyant. 

This statue as completed is regarded as one of the grand- 
est ever executed. The tzar is represented as on horseback, 
ascending a steep rock, the summit of which he is resolved to 
attain. In an Asiatic dress and crowned with laurel, he is 
pointing forward with his right hand, while with his left he 
holds the bridle of the magnificent charger on which he is 
mounted. The horse stands on his hind feet bounding for- 
w^ard, trampling beneath a brazen serpent, emblematic of the 
opposition the monarch encountered and overcame. It bears 
the simple inscription, "To Peter the First, by Catharine the 
Second, 1782." The whole expense of the statue amounted to 
over four hundred thousand dollars, an immense sum for that 
day, when a dollar was worth more than many dollars now. 



TERMINATION OF CATHAEINE'S K E I G N . 441 

At the close of the year 3 782, the Emperor of Germany 
and Catharine II. entered into an alliance for the more ener- 
getic prosecution of the war against the Turks. Ttjey issued 
very spirited proclamations enumerating their grievances, and 
immediately appeared on the Turkish frontiers with A'ast ar- 
mies. The attention of Catharine was constantly directed to- 
wards Constantinople, the acquisition of which city, with the 
Bosporus and the Dardanelles, was the object which, of all 
others, was the nearest to her heart. On the banks of the 
Dnieper, eighteen hundred miles from St. Petersburg, she laid 
the foundations of Kherson as a maritime port, and in an 
almost incredibly short time a city rose there containing forty 
thousand inhabitants. From its ship-yards vessels of war were 
launched which struck terror into the Ottoman empire. 

By previous wars, it will be remembered, the Crimea had 
been wrested from the Turks and declared to be independent, 
remaining nominally in the hands of the Tartars. Catharine 
II. immediately took the Tartar khan of the Crimea under her 
special protection, loaded him with favors, and thus assumed 
the guidance of his movements. He became enervated by 
luxury, learned to desj)ise the rude manners of his country- 
men, engaged a Russian cook, and was served from silver 
plate. Instead of riding on horseback he traveled in a splen- 
did chariot, and even solicited a commission in the Russian 
army. Catharine contrived to foment a revolt against her 
protege the khan, and then, very kindly, marched an army 
into the Crimea for his relief. She then, without any apology, 
took possession of the whole of the Crimea, and received the 
oath of allegiance from all the officers of the government, 
Indeed, there appears to have been no opposition to this meas- 
ure. The Tartar khan yielded with so much docility that he 
soon issued a manifesto in which he abdicated his throne, and 
transferred the whole dominion of his country to Catharine. 
Turkey, exasperated, prepared herself furiously for war. Rus- 
sia foi-med an alliance with the Emperor of Germany, and 

19* 



442 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

armies were soon in movement upon a scale such as even those 
war-scathed regions bad never witnessed before. The Dan- 
ube, throughout its whole course, was burdened with the 
barges of the Emperor of Germany, heavily laden with artil- 
lery, military stores and troops. More than a hundred thou- 
sand men were marched down to the theater of conflict from 
Hungary. Fifteen hundred pieces of artillery were in the 
train of these vast armies of the German emperor. The Rus- 
sian force was equally efficient, as it directed its march through 
the plains of Poland, and floated down upon the waters of the 
Don and the Dnieper. The Turkish sultan was not wanting 
in energy. From all his wide-spread domains in Europe and 
Asia, he marshaled his hosts, and engaged from other nations 
of Europe, and particularly from France, the most skillful offi- 
cers and engineers, to introduce into his armies European dis- 
cipline and improvements in weapons of war. 

The Ottoman Porte issued a manifesto, which was a very 
remarkable document both in vigor of style and nobility of 
sentiment. After severely denouncing the enormous encroach- 
ments of Russia, extending her dominions unscrupulously in 
every direction, the sultan asked indignantly, 

" What right can Russia have to territories annexed for 
ages to the dominions of the Porte ? Should the Porte make 
such claims on any portion of the Russian dominions, w^ould 
they not be repulsed ? And can it be presumed that the 
Sublime Porte, however desirous of peace, will acquiesce in 
wrong which, however it may be disguised, reason and equity 
must deem absolute usurpation ? What northern power has 
the Porte offended? Whose territories have the Ottoman 
troops invaded ? In the country of what prince is the Turkish 
standard displayed ? Content with the boundaries of empire 
assigned by God and the Prophet, the wishes of the Porte are 
for peace ; but if the court of Russia be determined in her 
claim, and will not recede without the acquisition of territories 
which do not belong to her, the Sublime Porte, appealing to 



TERMINATION OF CAniARINE'S KEI^JN. 443 

the world for llie justice of its proceedings, must prepare for 
war, relying on the decrees of Heaven, and confident in the 
interposition of the Prophet of prophets, that he will protect 
his faithful followers in the hour of every difficulty." 

No Mohammedan pen could have produced so vigorous a 
document. It was written by the English minister at Con- 
stantinople, Sir Robert Ainslie. Catharine II., apprehensive 
that, while all her armies were engaged on the banks of the 
Euxine, Sweden might attack her on the shores of the Baltic, 
decided to form a new treaty of peace with Gustavus III. 
An interview was arranged to take place at Frederiksham, a 
small but strongly fortified town upon the Gulf of Finland, the 
last town occupied by the liussians towards the frontiers of 
Sweden. The empress repaired thither in a yacht the 29th of 
June, 1783. Gustavus III., with his suite, met her at the ap- 
pointed hour. Two contiguous houses were prepared, furnished 
with the utmost splendor, and connected by a gallery, so that, 
during the four days these sove.eigns remained at Frederiks- 
ham, they could meet and converse at any time. There is still 
a picture existing, painted by order of Catharine, representing 
the empress and the Swedish monarch in one of their most 
confidential interviews. Catharine II. promised Gustavus that 
if he would faithfully remain neutral during her war with 
Turkey she would, at its close, aid Sweden in gaining posses- 
sion of Norway. The two sovereigns, having exchanged rich 
presents', separated, mutually delighted with each other. 

The empress had now seventy thousand men on the fron- 
tiers of the Crimea, and a reserve of forty thousand on the 
march to strengthen them. A third army of great power was 
rendezvoused at Kief. A large squadron of ships of war was 
ready for battle in the Sea of Azotj and another squadron was 
prepared to sail from the Baltic for the Mediterranean. En- 
gland, alarmed by the growth of Russia, did every thing in her 
power to stimulate the Turks to action. But the Porte, over- 
awed by the force brought agamst her, notwithstanding the 



444 THE EilPlKE OF RUSSIA. 

brave manifesto it had been induced to issue, sued for peace. 
Yielding to all the demands of Russia a treaty was soon signed. 
Catharine gained undisj^uted possession of the Crimea, large 
portions of Circassia, the whole of the Black Sea, and also the 
free passage of the Dardanelles. Tims, without firing a gun, 
Russia gained several thousand square miles of territory, and 
an addition of more than a million and a half of inhabitants, 
with commercial privileges which added greatly to the wealth 
of the empire. 

Catharine's fleet now rode triumphantly upon the Caspian, 
and she resolved to extend her dominions along the western 
shores of that inland sea. These vast regions were peopled 
by warlike tribes, ever engaged in hostilities against each 
other. Slowly but surely she advanced her conquests and 
reared her fortresses through those barbaric wilds. At the 
same time she w^as pushing her acquisitions with equal saga- 
city and success along the shores of Kamtschatka. With great 
vigor she encouraged her commercial caravans to penetrate 
China, and even opened relations with Japan, obtaining from 
that jealous people permission to send a trading ship to their 
coast every year. 

No persons are so jealous of the encroachments of others 
as those who are least scrupulous in regard to the encroach- 
ments which they themselves make. The English govern- 
ment, whose boast it is that the sun, in its circuit of the globe, 
never ceases to shine on their domains, watches with an eagle 
eye lest any other government on the globe should venture 
upon the most humble act of annexation. So it was with 
Catharine. Though adding to her vast dominions in every 
quarter; though appropriating, alike in peace and in war, all 
the territory she could lay her hands upon, she could inveigh 
against the inordinate ambition of other nations with the most 
surprising volubility. 

The increasing fame and power of Frederic II. had for 
some time disturbed her equanimity, and she manifested 



TERMINATION OF CATHARINE'S REIGN- 445 

great anxiety lest he should be guilty of the impropriety of 
annexing some petty duchy to his domains. Since he had 
united with Catliarine and Austria in the banditti partition of 
Poland, he had continually been making all the encroach- 
ments in his power ; adding acres to his domains as Catharine 
added squaie leagues to hers. In precisely the same spirit, 
England, who was grasping at all the Avorld, protested, with 
the most edifying devotion to the claims of justice and hu- 
manity, against the ambitious spirit of Russia. The *' beam" 
did not exclude the vision of the " mote." Cathraine, offended 
by the opposition of England, retaliated by entering into a 
treaty of commerce with France, which deprived England of 
an important part of the Russian trade. 

The spirit of toleration manifested by Catharine is worthy 
of all praise. During the whole of her reign she would not 
allow any one to be persecuted, in the slightest degree, on ac- 
count of religious opinions. All the conquered provinces 
were protected in the free exercise of their religion. Luther- 
ans, Calvinists, Moravians, Papists, Mohammedans, and Pa- 
gans of all kinds, not only enjoyed freedom of opinion and 
of worship, but could alike aspire to any post, civil or mili- 
tary, of which they could prove themselves worthy. At one 
time, when urged by the hateful spirit of religious bigotry to 
frown upon some heresy, she replied smiling, 

" Poor wretches ! since- we know that they are to suffer 
so much and so long in the world to come, it is but reason- 
able that we should endeavor, by all means, to make their 
situation here as comfortable as we can." 

Though Catharine II. had many great defects of charac- 
ter, she had many virtues which those wlio have denounced 
her most severely might do well to imitate. Her crowning 
vice, and the one which, notwithstanding her virtues, has 
consigned her name to shame, was that she had a constant 
succession of lovers who by secret and very informal nuptial 
rites were bound to her for a season, each one of whom was 



446 TUE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

exchanged for another as caprice incited. The spirit of na- 
tional aggrandizement which influenced Catharine, was a 
spirit possessed, to an equal extent, at that time, by every 
cabinet in Christendom. It was the great motive power of 
the age. Dismembered Poland excites our sympathy ; but 
Poland was as eager to share in the partition of other States 
as she was reluctant to submit to that operation herself In 
personal character Catharine was humane, tolerant, self-deny- 
ing, and earnestly devoted to the welfare of her empire. Re- 
ligious teachers, of all denominations, freely mot at her table. 
This Christian liberality, thus encouraged in the palace, spread 
through the realm, producing the most beneficial results. On 
the occasion of a celebrated festival, Catharine gave a grand 
dinner party to ecclesiastics of all communions at the palace. 
This entertainment she called the "Dinner of- Toleration." 
The representatives of eight different forms of worship met 
around this hospitable board. 

The instruction of the masses of the people occupied 
much of the attention of this extraordinar}V woman. She 
commenced with founding schools in the large towns; and 
then proceeded to the establishment of them in various parts 
of the country. Many normal schools were established for 
the education of teachers. The empress herself attended the 
examinations and questioned the scholars. On one of these 
occasions, when a learned German professor of history was 
giving a lecture to some pupils, gathered from the tribes of 
Siberia, the empress proposed an objection to some views he 
advanced. The courtiers were shocked at the learned man's 
presumption in replying to the objection in the most con- 
clusive manner. The empress, ever eager in the acquisition 
of knowledge, admitted her mistake, and thanked the pro- 
fessor for having rectified it with so much ability. 

She purchased, at a high price, the libraries of D'Alembert, 
and of Voltaire, immediately after the death of those illus- 
trious men. She also purchased the valuable cabinet of nitt- 



TERMINATION OF CATHARINE'S REIGN. 447 

ural curiosities collected by Professor Pallas. The most ac- 
complished engineers she could obtain were sent to explore 
the mountains of Caucasus, and even to the frontiers of China. 
When we consider the trackless deserts to be explored, the 
inhospitable climes and barbarous nations to be encountered, 
these were enterprises far more perilous than the circumnavi- 
gation of the globe. The scientific expedition to China was 
escorted by a corps of eight hundred and ten chosen men, 
led by one hundred and seven distinguished officers. Tiie 
savans were provided with every thing which could be 
thought of to promote their comfort and to aid them in their 
explorations, and three years were alloted as the probable 
term of service required by the mission. At the same time 
a naval expedition was fitted out to explore the northern seas, 
and asceitain the limits of tlie Russian empire. But the 
greatest work of Catharine's reign was the completion of the 
canal which united the waters of the Volga and the Neva, 
and thus established an inland navigation through all the 
countries which lie between the Caspian Sea and the Baltic. 

In the year 1786 the empress announced her intention of 
making a magnificent journey to the Crimea, in order to be 
crowned sovereign of her new conquests. This design was 
to be executed in the highest style of oriental pomp, as the 
empress was resolved to extend her sway over all the nations 
of the Tartars. But the Tartars of those unmeasured realms, 
informed of the contemplated movement, were alarmed, and 
immediately combined their energies for a determined resist- 
ance. The Grand Seignior was also goaded to the most des- 
perate exertions, for the empress had formed the design, and 
the report was universally promulgated, of placing her second 
grandchild, Constantino, on the throne of Constantinople. 

The empress set out on her triumphal journey to the 
Crimea, on the 18th of January, 1787, accompanied by a 
magnificent suite. The sledges, large, commodious and so 
lined with furs as to furnish luxurious couches for repose, 



448 TIIK EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

traveled night and day. Relays of horses were 3oJlected 
at all the stations and immense bonfires blazed at niojht all 
along the road. Twenty-one days were occupied m the jour- 
ney to Kief, where the empress was met by all the nobles of 
that portion of the empire. Plere fifty magnificent galleys, 
upon the ice of the Dnieper, awaited the arrival of the empress 
and the opening of the liver. On the 6th of May the ice was 
gone, the baiges were afloat, and the empress with her suite 
embarked. The King of Poland, who had now assumed his 
old name of Count Poniatowski, here met, in the barge of the 
empress, his rival, Stanislaus Augustus. 

The passage down the river, in this lovely month of spring, 
was like a fairy scene. The banks of the Dnieper were lined 
with villages constructed for the occasion. Peasants, in the 
most picturesque costumes, tended their flocks, or attended to 
various industrial arts as the flotilla drifted by. The Emperor 
of Germany, Joseph II., met the empress at Kaidak, from 
whence they proceeded together, by land, to Kherson. Here 
Catharine lodged in a palace where a throne had been erected 
for the occasion which cost fourteen thousand dollars. The 
whole expense of this one journey exceeded seven millions of 
dollars. From Kherson the empress proceeded to the inland 
part of the Crimean peninsula. Her body guard consisted of 
an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men, stationed at 
but a short distance from her. The entertainments in the 
Crimea were of the most goi'geous character, and were ar- 
ranged without any regard to expense. On the return of the 
empress she reached St. Petersburg the end of July, having 
been absent six months and four days. All Europe was sur- 
prised at the supineness which the sultan had manifested in 
allowing Catharine to prosecute her journey unobstructed; 
but Turkey was not then prepared for the commencement of 
hostilities. 

A squadron of thirty shij>s of war soon sailed from Constan- 
tinople and entered the Euxine. The Turks were apprehensive 



TERMINATION OF CATHARINE'S REIGN. 449 

that the Gieeks raiocht rise and disarmed them all before com- 
mencing the campaign. The empress had equipped, at Azof 
and Kherson, eight ships of the line, twelve frigates, and two 
hundred gun-boats. Slie had, in addition, a large squadron 
at Cronstadt, ready to sail for the Mediterranean. Eighty- 
thousand soldiers were also on the march from Germany to 
Moldavia. Every thing indicated that the entire overthrow 
of the Ottoman empire was at hand. 

The thunders of battle soon commenced on the sea and on 
the land. Both parties fought with desperation. Russia and 
Austria endeavored to unite France with them, in the attempt 
to dismember the Turkish empire as Poland had been parti- 
tioned, but France now stood in dread of the gigantic growth 
both of Kussia and of Austria, and was by no means disposed 
to strengthen those powers. England was also secretly aid- 
ing the Turks and sending them supplies. Influenced by the 
same jealousy against Russia, Sweden ventured to enter into 
an alliance with the Turks, while Prussia, from the same mo- 
tive, secretly lent Gustavus III. money, and England sent him 
a fleet. Thus, all of a sudden, new and appalling dangers 
blazed upon Russia. So many troops had been sent to the 
Crimea that Catharine was quite unprepared for an attack 
from the Swedish frontier. 

The Grand Duke Paul begged permission of bis mother 
that he might join the army against the Turks. The empress 
refused her consent. 

*' My intention," wrote again the grand duke, " of going 
to fight against the Ottomans is publicly known. What will 
Europe say, in seeing that I do not carry it into eff*ect ?" 

" Europe will say," Catharine replied, " that the grand 
duke of Russia is a dutiful son." 

The appearance of the powerful Swedish fleet in the Baltic 
rendered it necessary for Catharine to recall the order for the 
squadron at Cronstadt to sail for the Mediterranean. The 
roar of artillery no\\ reverberated alike along the shores of 



450 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the Baltic and over the waves of the Euxine. Denmark and 
Norway were brought into the conflict, and all Europe was 
again the theater of intrigues and battles. It would be a 
weary story to relate the numerous conflicts, defeats and vic- 
tories which ensued. Famine and pestilence desolated the 
regions where the Turkish and Russian armies were strug- 
gling. Army after army was destroyed until men began to 
grow scarce in the Russian empire. Even the wilds of Sibe- 
ria were ransacked for exiles, and many of them were brought 
back to replenish the armies of the empress. At length, after 
a warfare of two years, with about equal success on both sides, 
Catharine and Gustavus came to terms, both equally glad to 
escape the blows which each gave the other. This peace en- 
abled Russia to concentrate her energies upon Turkey. 

The Turks now fell like grass before the scythe. But the 
Russian generals and soldiers were often as brutal as demons. 
^N'ominal Christianity was no more merciful than was pagan- 
ism. Count Potemkin, the leader of the Russian army, was 
one of the worst specimens of the old aristocracy, which now, 
in many parts of Europe, have gone down into a grave whence, 
it is to be hoped, there can be no resurrection. The Turkish 
town of Ismael was taken in September, 1790, after enormous 
slaughter. The French Revolution was at this time iu rapid 
progress, and several Frenchmen were in the Russian army. 
To one of these, Colonel Langeron, Potemkin said, 

" Colonel, your countrymen are a pack of madmen. I 
would require only my grooms to stand by me, and we should 
soon bring them to their senses." 

Langeron replied, "Prince, I do not think you would be, 
able to do it with all your army !" 

These words so exasperated the Russian general that he 
rose in a rage, and threatened to send Langeron to Siberia. 
Conscious of his peril the French colonel fled, and entered 
into the service of the Austrians. 

Emissaries of Catharine were sent through all the Greek 



TERMINA.TION OF CATHARINE'S REIGN. 451 

isles, to urge the Greeks to rise against the enemies of the 
cross and restore their country to independence. Many of 
the Greeks rose, and Constantinople was in consternation. A 
Grecian embassage waited upon Catharine, imploring her aid 
for the enfranchisement of their country, and that she would 
give them her grandson Constantine for a sovereign. On the 
20th of February, 1790, Joseph II., Emperor of Austria, died, 
and was succeeded by Leopold II., who, yielding to the in- 
fluence of Prussia, concluded a separate peace with the Porte, 
and left Catharine to contend alone with the Ottomans. The 
empress now saw that, notwithstanding her victories, Russia 
was exhausted, and that she could not hope for the immediate 
accomplishment of her ambitious projects, and she became 
desirous of peace. Through the mediation of England terms 
of peace were proposed, and acceded to in January, 1792. In 
this war iris estimated that Russia lost two hundred thousand 
men, Austria one hundred and thirty thousand, and Turkey 
three hundred and thirty thousand. Russia expended in this 
war, beneficial to none and ruinous alike to all, two hundred 
millions of dollars. 

The empress, thwarted in her designs upon Turkey, now 
turned to Poland. War was soon declared, and her armies 
were soon sweeping over that ill-fated territory. Kosciusko 
fought like a hero for his country, but his troops were merci- 
les3ly butchered by Russian and Prussian armies. In triumph 
the allies entered the gory streets of Warsaw, sent the king, 
Stanislaus Augustus, to exile on a small pension, and divided 
the remainder of Poland between them. Catharine now en- 
tered into the coalition of the European powers against re- 
publican France. She consented to a treaty with England 
and Austria, by which she engaged to furnish an army of 
.eighty thousand men to crush the spirit of French liberty, on 
condition that those two powers should consent to her driving 
the Turks out of Europe. Catharine was highly elated with 



452 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

this treaty. It was drawn up and was to be signed on the 
6th of November, 1796. 

On the morning of that day the empress, in her usual 
health and spirits, rose from the breakfast table, and retired to 
her closet. Not returning as soon as usual, some of her at- 
tendants entered and found her on the floor senseless. She 
had fallen in a fit of apoplexy, and died at ten o'clock in the 
evening of the next day without regaining consciousness or 
uttering a word, in the sixty-seventh year of her age, and 
after a reign of thirty-five years. 

Paul, who was at his country palace, being informed of 
his mother's death, and of his accession to the throne, 
hastened to St. Petersburg. He ordered the tomb of Peter 
III. to be opened and placed the coffin by the side of that of 
the empress, with a true love knot reaching from one to the 
other, containing the inscription, under the circumstances su- 
premely ridiculous, " divided in life — united in death." They 
were both buried together with the most sumptuous funeral 
honors. 

The character of Catharine II. is sufficiently portrayed in 
her marvelous history. The annals of past ages may be 
searched in vain for her parallel. Two passions were ever 
predominant with her, love and ambition. Her mind seemed 
incapable of exhaustion, and notwithstanding the number of 
her successive favorites, with whom she entered into the most 
guilty connections, no monarch ever reigned with more dignity 
or with a more undisputed sway. Under her reign, notwith- 
standing the desolating wars, Russia made rapid advances in 
power and civilization. She protected commerce, excited in- 
dustry, cultivated the arts, encouraged learning, promoted 
manufactures, founded cities, dug canals, and developed in a 
thousand ways the wealth and reswirces of the country. She 
had sc many vices that some have consigned her name to in- 
famy, and so many virtues, that others have advocated her 
canonization. 



TERMINATION OF CATHARINE'S REIGN. 453 

By the most careful calculation it is estimated that during 
the tliirty five years of the reign of Catharine, she added over 
four hundred thousand square miles to the territory of Rus- 
sia, and six millions of inhabitants. It would be difficult to 
estimate the multitude of lives and the amount of treasure 
expended in her ambitious wars. We know of no more affect- 
ing comment to be made upon the history of our world, than 
that it presents such a bloody tragedy, that even the career 
of Catharine does not stand out in any peculiar prominence 
of atrocity. God made man but little lower than the angels. 
He is indeed fallen. 



CHAPTER XXYIII. 

THE REIGN OF PAUL I. 

FROir 119Q TO 1801. 

Accession of Pacl I. to the Theone. — Influence of the Hereditaey Transmissiok 
OF Powee. — Extravagance of Paul. — His Despotism. — Tue Horse Court Mae- 
TTALED. — Progress of the French Eevolution. — Fears and Violence of P au 
—Hostility to Foeeignef^. — Eussia Joins the Coalition against France. — 
March of Suwarrow. — Character of Suwarrow. — Battle on the Adda. — Bat- 
tle OF NOTI. — SUWARROW MaECHES TO THE EhINE. — HiS DEFEAT AND DeATH. — 

Paul Abandons the Coalition and Joins Feance. — Conspiracies at St. Petees- 

BUEG. 



FEW sovereigns have ever ascended the throne more igno- 
rant of affairs of state than was Paul I. Catharine had 
endeavored to protract his childhood, entrusting him with no 
responsibilities, and regulating herself minutely all his domes- 
tic and private concerns. He was carefully excluded from 
any participation in national affairs and was not permitted to 
superintend even his own household. Catharine took his cliil- 
dren under her own protection as soon as they were born, 
and the parents were seldom allowed to see them. Paul I. 
had experienced, in his own person, all the burden of despot- 
ism ere he ascended Russia's despotic throne. Naturally de- 
sirous to secure popularity, he commenced his reign with acts 
which were much applauded. He introduced economy into 
the expenditures of the court, forbade the depreciation of the 
currency and the further issue of paper money, and withdrew 
the army which Catharine had sent to Persia on a career of 
conquest. 

Paul I. did not love his mother. He did not believe that 
he was her legitimate child Still, as his only title to the 



THE EEIGX OF PAUL I. 45o 

throne was founded on his being the reputed child of Peter 
III., he did what he could to rescue the memory of that princ( 
from the infamy to which it had been very properly consigned. 
He had felt so humiliated by the domineering spirit of Cath- 
arine, that he resolved that Russia should not again fall under 
the reign of a woman, and issued a decree that henceforth the 
crown should descend in the male line only, and from father to 
son. The new emperor manifested his hostility to his mother, 
by endeavoring in various ways to undo what she had done. 

The history of Europe is but a continued comment upon 
the folly of the law of the hereditary descent of power, a law 
which is more likely to place the crown upon the brow of a 
knave, a fool or a madman, than upon that of one qualified to 
govern. Russia soon awoke to the consciousness that the 
destinies of thirty millions of people were in the hands of a 
maniac, whose conduct seemed to prove that his only proj)er 
place was in one of the wards of Bedlam. The grossest con- 
tradictions followed each other in constant succession. To- 
day he would caress his wife, to-morrow place her under mili- 
tary arrest. At one hour he would load his children with 
favors, and the next endeavor to exj^ose them publicly to 
shame. 

Though Paul severely blamed his mother for the vast sums 
she lavished upon her court, these complaints did not prevent 
him from surpassing her in extravagance. The innumerable 
palaces she had reared and embellished with more than ori- 
ental splendor, were not sufficient for hira. Xeither the Winter 
palace, nor the Summer palace, nor the palace of Anitschkoff, 
nor the Marble p.ilace, nor the Hermitage, whose fairy-like 
gorgeousness amazed all beholders, nor a crowd of other royal 
residences, too numerous to mention, and nearly all world- 
renowned, were deemed worthy of the residence of the new 
monarch. Pretending that he had received a celestial injunc- 
tion to construct a new palace, he built, reckless of expense, 
the chateau of St. Michael. 



456 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

The crown of Catharine was the wonder of Europe, but it 
was not rich enough for the brow of Paul. A new one was 
constructed, and his coronation at Moscow was attended with 
freaks of expenditure which impoverished provinces. Bound- 
less gifts were lavished upon his favorites. But that he might 
enrich a single noble, ten thousand peasants were robbed. 
The crown peasants were vassals, enjoying very considerable 
freedom and many privileges. The peasantry of the nobles 
w^ere slaves, nearly as much so as those on a Cuban plantation, 
with the single exception that custom prevented their being 
sold except with the land. Like the buildings, the oaks and 
the elms, they were inseparably attached to the soil. The 
emperor, at his coronation, gave away eighty thousand fam- 
ilies to his favorites. Their labor henceforth, for life, was all 
to go to enrich their masters. These courtiers, reveling in 
boundless luxury, surrendered their slaves to overseers, whose 
reputation depended upon extorting as much as possible from 
the miserable boors. 

The extravagance of Catharine II. had rendered it neces- 
sary for her to triple the cajDitation, or, as we should call it, the 
poll-tax, imposed upon the peasants. Paul now doubled tins 
tax, which his mother had already tripled. The King of Prus- 
sia had issued a decree that no subject should fall upon his 
knees before him, but that every man should maintain in his 
presence and in that of the law the dignity of humanity. Paul, 
on the contrary, reestablished, in all its rigor, the oriental eti- 
quette, which Peter I. and Catharine had allowed to pass into 
disuse, which required every individual, whether a citizen or 
a stranger, to fall instantly upon his knees whenever the tzar 
made his appearance. Thus, when Paul passed along the 
streets on horseback or in his carriage, every man, woman 
and child, within sight of the royal cortege, was compelled to 
kneel, whether in mud or snow, until the cortege had passed. 
No one was exempted from the rule. Strangers and citizens, 
nobles and peasants, were compelled to the degrading homage. 



THE REIGN OF PAUL I. i57 

Those on horseback or in carriages were required instantly to 
dismount and prostrate themselves before the despot. 

A noble lady who came to St. Petersburg in her carriage, 
in great haste, to seek medical aid for her husband, who had 
been suddenly taken sick, in her trouble not having recognized 
the imperial livery, was dragged from her carriage and thrust 
into prison. Her four servants, who accompanied her, were 
seized and sent to the army, although they plead earnestly 
that, coming from a distance, they were ignorant of the law, 
the infraction of which was attributed to them as a crime. 
The unhappy lady, thus separated from her sick husband, and 
plunged into a dungeon, was so overwhelmed with anguish 
that she was thrown into a fev^er. Reason was dethroned, and 
she became a hopeless maniac. The husband died, being de- 
prived of the succor his wife had attempted to obtain. 

The son of a rich merchant, passing rapidly in his sleigh, 
muffled in furs, did not perceive the carriage of the emperor 
which he met, until it had passed. The police seized him ; his 
sleigh and horses were confiscated. He was placed in close con- 
finement for a month, and then, after receiving fifty blows from 
the terrible knout, was delivered to his friends a mangled form, 
barely alive. 

A young lady, by some accident, had not thrown herself 
upon her knees quick enough at the appearance of the imperial 
carriage in the streets of Moscow. She was an orphan and 
resided with an aunt. They were both imprisoned for a month 
and fed upon bread and water; the young lady for failing in 
respect to the emperor, and the aunt for not having better 
instructed her niece. How strange is this power of despotism, 
by which one madman compels forty millions of people to 
tremble before him ! 

One of the freaks of this crazy prince was to court-martial 
his horse. The noble steed had tripped beneath his rider. 
A council was convened, composed of the equerries of the 
palace. The horse was proved guilty of failing in respect to 

20 



458 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

his majesty, and was condemned to receive fifty blows from a 
heavy whip. Paul stood by, as the sentence was executed, 
counting off the blows.* 

Twelve Polish gentlemen were condemned, for being 
" wanting in respect to his majesty," to have their noses and 
ears cut off", and were then sent to perpetual Siberian exile. 
AYhen any one was admitted to an audience with the tzar, it 
v/as necessary for him to fall upon his knees so suddenly and 
l.eavily that his bones would ring upon the floor like the butt 
of a musket. No gentle genuflexion satisfied the tzar. A 
piince Gallatin was imprisoned for *' kneeling and kissing the 
emperor's hand too negligently." This contempt for humanity 
soon rendered Paul very unpopular. He well knew that his 
legitimacy was doubted, and that if an illegitimate child he 
had no right whatever to the throne. He seemed to wush to 
prove that he was the son of Peter IH. by imitating all the 
silly and cruel caprices of that most contemptible prince. 

The French Revolution was now in progress, the crushed 
people of that kingdom endeavoring to throw off" the yoke of 
intolerable oppression. All the despots in Europe were alarmed 
lest popular liberty in France should undermine their thrones. 
None were more alarmed than Paul. He was so fearful that 
democratic ideas might enter his kingdom that he forbade the 
introduction into his realms of any French journal or pam- 
phlet. All Frenchmen in his kingdom were also ordered im- 
mediately to depart. All ships arriving were searched and if 
any French subjects were on board, men or women, they were 
not permitted to land, but were immediately sent out of the 
kingdom. Merchants, who had left their families and their 
business for a temporary absence, w^ere not permitted again 
to set foot in the kino-dom. The sufferinor which this cruel 
edict occasioned was very great. 

Day after day new diecrees were issued, of ever increasing 
violence. The tzar became suspicious of all strangers of what- 
* Memoires Secret, tome I, page 334. 



THE EEIGX OF PAUL I. 459 

ever nation, and endeavored to rear a wall of separation 
around his whole kingdom which should exclude it from all 
intercourse with other parts of Europe. The German uni- 
versities were all declared to be tainted with superstition, and 
all Russians were prohibited, under penalty of the confiscation 
of their estates, from sending their sons to those institutions. 
No foreigner, of whatever nation, was allowed to take part in 
any civil or ecclesiastical service. The young Russians who 
were already in the German universities, were commanded 
immediately to return to their homes. 

Apprehensive that knowledge itself, by whomsoever com- 
municated, might make the people restless under their enor- 
mous wrongs, Paul suppressed nearly all the schools which 
had been founded by Catharine IL, reserving only a few to 
communicate instruction in the military art. All books, but 
those issued under the surveillance of the government, were 
interdicted. The greatest efforts were made to draw a broad 
line of distinction between the people and the nobles, and to 
place a barrier there which no plebeian could pass. Some one 
informed Paul that in France the revolutionists wore the 
chapeau, or three-cornered hat, with one of the corners in 
front. The tzar immediately issued a decree that in Russia 
the hat should be worn with the corner behind. 

We have said that Paul was bitterly hostile to all foreio-n- 
ers. The emigrants, however, who fled from France, with 
arms in their hands, imploring the courts of Europe to crush 
republican liberty in France, he welcomed with the greatest 
cordiality and loaded with favors. The princes and nobles of 
the French court received from Paul large pensions, while, at 
the same time, he ignobly made them feel that he was their 
master and they were his slaves. His dread of French liberty 
was so great, that with all his soul he entered into the wide- 
spread European coalition which the genius of Pitt had organ- 
ized against France, and which embraced even Turkey. And 
now for the first time the spectacle was seen of the Russian 



460 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

and Turkish squadrons combining against a common foe, 
Paul sent an army of one hundred thousand men to co- 
operate with the allies. Republican France gathered up her 
energies to resist Europe in arms. The young Napoleon, 
heading a heroic band of half-famished soldiers, turned the 
Alps and fell like a thunderbolt into the Austrian camp upon 
the plains of Italy. In a series of victories which astounded 
the v/orld he swept the foe before him, and compelled the 
Austrians to sue for peace. The embassadors of France and 
Germany met at Rastadt,- in congress, and after spending 
many months in negotiations, the congress was dissolved by 
the Emperor of Germany, in April, 1799. The French em- 
bassadors set out to return, and were less than a quarter of a 
mile from the city, when a troop of Austrian hussars fell upon 
them, and two of their number, Roberjeot and Bonnier, were 
treacherously assassinated. The third, Delry, though left for 
dead, revived so far as to be able, covered with wounds and 
blood, to crawl back to Rastadt.* 

Napoleon was at this time in Egypt, endeavoring to assail 
England, the most formidable foe of France, in India, the only 
vulnerable point which could be reached. Fifty thousand 
Russians, in a single band, were marching through Germany 
to cooperate with the Austrians on the French frontiers. The 
more polished Germans were astonished at the barbaric char- 
acter of their allies. A Russian officer, in a freak of passion, 

* " Our plenipotentiaries were massacred at Eastadt, and notwithstand- 
ing the indignation expressed bj all France at that atrocity, vengeance '>vas 
still very tardy in overtaking the assassins. The two Councils were the first 
to render a melancholy tribute of honor to the victims. Who that saw tiiat 
ceremony ever forgot its solemnity ? Who can recollect without emotion the 
religious silence which reigned throughout the hall and galleries when the 
vote was put ? The president then turned towai'da the curule chairs of the 
victims, on which lay the oflBcial costume of the assassinated representatives. 
covered with black crape, bent over them, pronounced the names of Rober- 
jeot and Bonnier, and added, in a voice, the tone of which was always thrill- 
ing. Assassinated at the Congress of Rastadt. Immediately all the represent 
ativea responded, May their blood he upon the heads of their murderers.^ 
— Duchess of Abrantes. p. 206. 



THE EEIGN OF PAUL I. 461 

shot an Austrian postilion, and then took out his purse and 
enquired of the employer of the postilion what damage was 
to be paid, as coolly as if he had merely killed a horse or 
a cow. Even German law was compelled to wink at such 
outrages, for an ally so essential as Russia it was needful to 
conciliate at all hazards. Paul deemed himself the most illus- 
trious monarch of Europe, and resolved that none but a Rus- 
sian general should lead the allied armies. The Germans, on 
the contrary^ regarded the Russians as barbarians of woltisli 
courage and gigantic strength, but far too ignorant of mili- 
tary science to be entrusted with the plan of a campaign. 
After much contention the Emperor of Austria was compelled 
to yield, and an old Russian general, Suwarrow, was placed 
in command of the armies of the two most powerful empires 
then on the globe. 

And who was Suwarrow ? Behold his portrait. Born in 
a village of the Ukraine, the boy was sent by his father, an 
army officer, to the military academy at St. Petersburg, 
whence he entered the army as a common soldier, and ever 
after, for more than sixty years, he lived in incessant battles 
in Sweden, Turkey, Poland. In the storm of Israael, forty 
thousand men, women and children fell in indiscriminate mas- 
sacre at his command. In the campaign which resulted in the 
partition of Poland, twenty thousand Poles were cut down by 
Ids dragoons. A stranger to fear, grossly illiterate, and with 
no human sympathies, he appears on the arena but as a thun- 
derbolt of war. Next to the emperor Paul, he was perhaps 
the most fantastic man on the continent. In a war with the 
Turks he killed a large number with his own hands, and 
brought, on his shoulders, a sackful of heads, which he rolled 
out at the feet of his general. This was the commencement 
of his reputation.* His whole military career was in accord- 
ance with this act. He had but one passion, love of war. He 
would often, even in mid-winter, have one or two pailsful of 

* Histoire Philosophique et Politique de Russia. Tome cinqui^me, p. 233. 



462 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

cold water poured upon him, as he rose from his bed, and 
then, in his shirt, leap upon an unsaddled horse and scour the 
camp with the speed of the wind. Sometimes he would ap- 
pear, in the early morning, at the door of his tent, stark naked, 
and crow like a cock. This was a signal for the tented host 
to spring to arms. Occasionally he would visit the hospital, 
pretending that he was a physician, and would prescribe med- 
icine for those whom he thought sick, and scourgings for 
those whom he imagined to be feigning sickness. Sometimes 
he would turn all the patients out of the doors, sick and well, 
saying that it was not permitted for the soldiers of Suwarrow 
to be sick. He was as merciless to himself as he was to his 
soldiers. Hunger, cold, fatigue, seemed to him to be pleas- 
ures. Hardships which to many would render life a scene of 
insupportable torture, were to him joys. He usually traveled 
in a coarse cart, which he made his home, sleeping in it at 
night, with but the slightest protection from the weather. 
Whenever he lodged in a house, his aides took the precaution 
to remove the windows from his room, as he would otherwise 
inevitably smash every glass. 

ISTotwithstanding this ostentatious display of his hatred of 
all luxury, he was excessively fond of diamonds and other pre- 
cious stones. He was also exceedhigly superstitious, ever fall- 
ing upon his knees before whatever priest he might meet, and 
imploring his benediction. Such men generally feel that the 
observance of ceremonial rites absolves them from the guilt 
of social crimes. With thes« democratic manners Suwarrow 
utterly detested liberty. The French, as the most liberty - 
loving people of Europe, he abhorred above all others. He 
foamed with rage when he spoke of them. In the sham fights 
with which he frequently exercised the army, when he gave 
the order to '•''charge the miserable French^'''' every soldier 
was to make two thrusts of the bayonet in advance, as if twice 
to pierce the heart of the foe, and a third thrust into the 
giound, that the man, twice bayoneted, might be pinned in 



THE REIGN OF PAUL I. 463 

death to the earth. Such was the general whom Paul sent 
"to destroy the impious government," as he expressed it, 
" which dominated over France." 

With blind confidence Suwarrow marched down upon the 
plains of Lombardy, dreaming that in those fertile realms 
nothing awaited him but an easy triumph over those who had 
been guilty of the crime of abolishing despotism. The French 
had heard appalling rumors of the prowess and ferocity of 
these warriors of the North, and awaited the shock with no 
little solicitude.* The two armies met on the banks of the 
Adda, which flows into the northern part of the Lake of Como, 
Suwarrow led sixty thousand Russians and Austrians. The 
French general, Moreau, to oppose them, had the wreck of an 
army, consisting of twenty-five thousand men, disheartened 
by defeat. On the iVth of April, 1799, the first Russian regi- 
ment appeared in sight of the bridge of Lecco. The French, 
indignant at the interference of the Russians in a quarrel with 
which they had no concern, dashed upon them with their bay- 
onets, and repulsed them with great carnage. But the hosts 
of Russia and Austria came pouring on in such overwhelming 
numbers, that Moreau, with his forces reduced to twenty thou- 
sand men, was compelled to retreat before an army which 
could concentrate ninety thousand troops in line of battle. 
Pressed by the enemy, he retreated through Milan to Turin. 
Suwarrow tarried in Milan to enjoy a triumph accorded to him 
by the priests and the nobles, the creatures of Austria. 

Moreau entrenched himself at Alexandria, awaiting the 
arrival of General Macdonald with reinforcements. Suwarrow 

* " Suwarrow was a genuine barbarian, fortunately incapable of calculat- 
ing the employment of his forces, otherwise the republic might perhaps have 
succumbed. His army was like himself. It had a bravery that was extra- 
ordinary and bordered on fanaticism, but no instruction. It was expert only 
at the use of the bayonet. Suwarrow, extremely insolent to tlie allie?, gave 
Russian ofQcers to the Austrians to teach them the use of tiic bayonet. For- 
tunately his brutal energy, after doing a great deal of mischief, had to encoun- 
ter the energy of skill and calculation, and was ibiled by the latter." — Thiers' 
History French Bevoluiion, vol. iv., p. 3-46. 



464 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA, 

approached with an army now exceeding one hundred thou- 
sand men. Again Moreau was comijelled to retreat, pursued 
by Suwarrow, and took refuge on the crest of tlie Apennines, 
in the vicinity of Genoa. By immense exertions he had assem- 
bled forty thousand men. Suwarrow came thundering upon 
liiin with sixty thousand. The French army was formed in a 
semicircle on the slopes of the Monte Rotundo, about twenty 
miles north of Genoa. The Austro -Russian army spread over 
the whole plain below. At five o'clock in the morning of the 
loth of August, 1*799, the fierce battle of Novi commenced. 
Suwarrow, a fierce fighter, but totally unacquainted with the 
science of strategy, in characteristic words gave the order of 
battle. " Kray," said he, " will attack the left — the Russians 
the center — Melas the right." To the soldiers he said, " God 
wills, the emperor orders, Suwarrow commands, that to-mor- 
row the enemy be conquered." Dressed in his usual costume, 
in his shirt down to the waist, he led his troops into battle. 
Enormous slaughter ensued ; numbers prevailing against 
science, and the French, driven out of Italy, took refuge along 
the ridges of the Apennines. 

Suwarrow, satisfied with his dearly-bought victory, for he 
had lost ten thousand men in the conflict, did not venture to 
pursue the retiring foe, but with his bleeding and exhausted 
army fell back to Coni ; and thence established garrisons 
throughout Piedmont and Lombardy. Paul was almost de- 
lirious with joy at this great victory. He issued a decree de- 
claring Suwarrow to be the greatest general " of all times, of 
all peoples and of all quarters of the globe." In his pride he 
declared that republican France, for the crime of rebelling 
against legitimate authority, should receive punishment which 
should warn all nations against following her example. The 
Russian squadron combined with that of the Turks, formed a 
junction with the victorious fleet of Nelson, and sailing from 
the bay of Aboukir, swept the French fleet from the Medi- 
terranean. 



THE KEIGN OF PAUL I. 465 

The Austrians and Russians, thus victoiious, now marched 
to assail Massena at Zurich on the Rhine, intending there to 
cross the stream and invade France. For a month, in Septem- 
ber and October, 1799, there was a series of incessant battles. 
But the republican armies were triumphant. The banners of 
France struggled proudly through many scenes of blood and 
woe, and the shores of Lake Zurich and the fastnesses of the 
Alps, were strewed with the dead bodies of the Russians. In 
fourteen days twenty thousand Russians and six thousand 
Austrians were slain. Suwarrow, the intrepid barbarian, with 
but ten thousand men saved from his proud army, retreated 
overwhelmed with confusion and rage. Republican France 
was saved. The rage which Suwarrow displayed is repre- 
sented as truly maniacal. He foamed at the mouth and 
roared like a bull. As a wounded lion turns upon his pur- 
suers, from time to time he stopped in his retreat, and rushed 
back upon the foe. He was crushed in body and mind by 
this defeat. Having wearied himself in denouncing, in un- 
measured terras, all his generals and soldiers, he became taci- 
turn and moody. Secluding himself from his fellow-men he 
courted solitude, and surrendered himself to a fantastic and 
superstitious devotion. Enveloped in a cloak, and with his 
eyes fixed upon the ground, he wbuld occasionally pass 
through the camp, condescending to notice no one. 

Paul had also sent an army into Holland, against France, 
which had been utterly repulsed by General Brune, with the 
loss of many slain and taken prisoners. The tidings of these 
disasters roused, in the bosom of Paul, fury equal to that 
which Suwarrow had displayed. He bitterly cursed his allies, 
England and Austria, declaring that they, in the pursuit of 
their own selfish interests, had abandoned his armies to de- 
struction. Suwarrow, deprived of further command, and over- 
whelmed with disgrace, retired to one of his rural retreats 
where he soon died of chagrin. 

The Austiian and English embassadors at the court of St. 

20* 



466 THE EMPIRE OP EUSSIA. 

Petersburg, Paul loaded with reproaches and even with in- 
sults. His conduct became so whimsical as to lead many to 
suppose that he was actually insane. He had long hated the 
French republicans, but now, with a new and a fresher fury, he 
hated the allies. The wrecks of his armies were ordered to 
return to Kussia, and he ceased to take an active part in the 
prosecution of the war, without however professing, in any 
way, to withdraw from the coalition. Neither the Austrian 
nor the Enohsh embassador could obtain an audience w^ith the 
emperor. He treated them with utter neglect, and, the court 
following the example of the sovereign, these embassadors 
were left in perfect solitude. They could not even secure an 
audience with any of the ministry. 

Paul had been very justly called the Don Quixote of the 
coalition, and the other powers were now not a little appre- 
hensive of the course he might adopt, for madman as he was, 
he was the powerful monarch of some forty milhons of people. 
Soon he ordered the Russian fleet, which in cooperation with 
the squadrons of the allies was blockading Malta, to w^ithdraw 
from the conflict. Then he recalled his ministers from Lon- 
don and Vienna, declaring that neither England nor Austria 
was contending for any principle, but that they were fighting 
merely for their own selfish interests. England had already 
openly declared her intention of appropriating Malta to herself. 

Napoleon had now returned from Egypt and had been in- 
vested with the supreme power in France as First Consul. 
There were many French prisoners in the hands of the allies. 
France had also ten thousand Russian prisoners. Napoleon 
proposed an exchange. Both England and Austria refused 
to exchange French prisoners for Russians. 

" What," exclaimed Napoleon, " do you refuse to liberate 
the Russians, who were your allies, who were fighting in your 
ranks and under your commanders ? Do you refuse to re- 
store to their country those men to wdiom you are indebted 
for your victories and conquests in Italy, and who have left in 



THE REIGN OF PAUL I. 467 

your hands a multitude of French prisoners whom they have 
taken ? Such injustice excites my indignation." 

With chai'acteristic magnanimity he added, "I will re- 
store them to the tzar without exchange. He shall see how 
I esteem brave men." 

These Russian prisoners were assembled at Aix la Cha- 
pelle. They were all furnished with a complete suit of new 
clothing, in the uniform of their own regiments, and were 
thoroughly supplied with weapons of the best French manu- 
facture. And thus they were returned to their homes. Paul 
was exactly in that mood of mind which best enabled him to 
appreciate such a deed. He at once abandoned the alliance, 
and with his own hand wrote to Napoleon as follows : 

" Citizen First Consul, — I do not write to you to discuss 
the rights of men or of citizens. Every country governs itself 
as it pleases. Whenever I see, at the head of a nation, a man 
who knows how to rule and how to fight, my heart is at- 
tracted towards him. I write to acquaint you with my dis- 
satisfaction with England, who violates every article of the 
law of nations and has no guide but her egotism and her in- 
terest. I wish to unite with you to put an end to the unjust 
proceedings of that government." 

Friendly relations were immediately established between 
France and Russia, and they exchanged embassadors. Paul 
had conferred an annual pension of two hundred thousand 
rubles (about $150,000) upon the Count of Provence, subse- 
quently Louis XVin., and had given him an asylum at Mittau. 
He now w^ithdrew that pension and protection. He hiduced 
tlie King of Denmark to forbid the English fleet from passing 
the Soimd, which led into the Baltic Sea, engaging, should 
the English attempt to force the passage, to send a fleet of 
twenty-one ships to assist the Danes. The battle of Hohen- 
linden and the peace of Luneville detached Austria from the 
coalition, and England was left to struggle alone against the 
new opinions in France. 



468 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

The nobles of Russia, harmonizing with the aristocracy ot 
Europe, were quite dissatisfied with this alliance between Kus 
sia and France. Though the form of the republic was changed 
to that of the consulate, they saw that the principles of popular 
liberty remained unchanged in France. The wife of Paul and 
her children, victims of the inexplicable caprice of the tzar, 
lived in constant constraint and fear. The empress had three 
sons — Alexander, Constantine and Nicholas. The heir appar- 
ent, Alexander, was watched with the most rigorous scrutiny, 
and was exposed to a thousand mortifications. The suspicious 
fithcr became the jailer of his son, examining all his corre- 
spondence, and superintending his mode of life in its minutest 
details. The most whimsical and annoying orders were issued, 
which rendered life, in the vicinity of the court, almost a bur- 
den. The army officers were forbidden to attend evening par- 
ties lest they should be too weary for morning parade. Every 
one who passed the imperial palace, even in the most inclement 
weather, was compelled to go with head uncovered. The 
enforcement of his arbitrary measures rendered the interven- 
tion of the troops often necessary. The palace was so fortified 
and guarded as to resemble a prison. St. Petersburg, filled 
with the machinery of war, presented the aspect of a city be- 
sieged. Every one was exposed to arrest. No one was sure 
of passing the night in tranquillity, there were so many domi- 
ciliary visits ; and many persons, silently arrested, disappeared 
without it ever being known what became of them. Spies 
moved about everywhere, and their number was infinite. 
Paul thus enlisted against himself the animosity of all classes 
of his subjects — his own family, foreigners, the court, the 
nobles and the bourgeois. Such were the influences which 
originated the conspiracy which resulted in the assassination 
of the tzar. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

ASSASSINATION OF PAUL AND ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 

From 1801 to 180t. 

Assassination op Paul I. — Implication op Alexander in the Conspieact. — Anec- 
dotes. — Accession of Alexander. — Tue French Eevolution. — Alexander Joins 
THE Allies against France. — State of Kttssia. — Useful Measitees of Alexan- 
der. — Peace of Amiens. — Renewal of Hostilities. — Battle of Austerlitz. — 
Magnanimity of Napoleon. — New Coalition. — Ambition of Alexander. — Bat- 
tles OF Jena and Eylau. — Defeat of the Ecssians. 

WE have before mentioned that Paul I. had three sons — 
Alexander, Constantine and Nicholas. The eldest of 
these, Alexander, was a very promising young man, of popular 
character, twenty-three years of age. His father feared his 
popularity and treated him with the greatest severity, and 
was now threatening him and his mother with imprisonment. 
General Pahlen, governor of St. Petersburg, obtained the 
confidence of the young prince, and urged upon liim, as a 
necessary measure of self-defense, that he should jjlace him- 
self at the head of a conspiracy for the dethronement of his 
insane father. The suflerings of the young prince were so 
severe and his perils so great, and the desire for a change so 
universal throughout the empire, that it was not found diffi- 
cult to enlist him in the enterprise. Alexander consented to 
the dethronement of his father, but with the express condition 
that his life should be spared. He might perhaps have flat- 
tered himself with the belief that this could be done ; but 
the conspirators knew full well that the dagger of the assassin 
was the only instrument which could remove Paul from the 
throne. The conspiracy was very extensive, embracing nearly 
all the functionaries of the government at St. Petersburg, the 



4V0 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

entire senate, and the diplomatic corps. All the principal 
officers of the royal guard, witii their colonel at their head, 
were included iii the plot. The hour for the execution of the 
conspiracy was fixed for the night of the 23d of March, 1801. 

A regiment devoted to the conspirators was that night on 
guard at the palace. The confederates who were to execute 
the plot, composed of the most distinguished men in the couit 
and the army, met at the house of Prince Talitzin ostensibly 
lor a supper. With wine and wassail they nerved themselves 
for the desperate deed. Just at midnight a select number 
entered the garden of the palace, by a private gate, and steal- 
ing silently along, beneath the trees, approached a portal 
which was left unbarred and undefended. One of the guard- 
ians of the palace led their steps and conducted them to an 
apartment adjoining that in which the tzar slept. A single 
iuissar guarded the door. He was instantly struck down, and 
the conspirators in a body rushed into the royal chamber. 

Paul sprang from his bed, and seizing his sword, endea- 
vored to escape by another door than that through which the 
conspirators entered. Foiled in this attempt, in the darkness, 
for all lights had been extinguished, he hid himself behind a 
movable screen. He was however soon seized, lights were 
brought in, and an act of abdication was read to him which 
he was required to sign. The intrepid tzar sprang at Zou- 
bow, who was reading the act, and cuffed his ears. A strug- 
gle immediately ensued, and an officer's sash was passed 
around the neck of the monarch, and after a desperate resist- 
ance he was strangled. The dress of one of the conspirators 
caused him to be mistaken, by the emperor, for his son Con- 
stantine, and the last words which the wretched sovereign 
uttered were, " And you too, Constantine." 

The two grand dukes, Alexander and Constantine, were 
in the room below, and heard all the noise of the struggle in 
which their fatlier was assassinated. It was with much diffi- 
culty that these young princes were induced to give their 



ASSASSINATION OF PAUL. 471 

consent to the conspiracy, and they yielded only on condition 
that their father's life should be spared. But self defense re- 
quired some vigorous action on their part, for Paul had 
threatened to send Alexander to Siberia, to immure Constan- 
tine in a convent, and the empress mother in a cloister. 

The conspirators having accomplished the deed, descended 
into the apartment, where the grand dukes were awaiting 
their return. Alexander enquired eagerly if they had saved 
his father's life. The silence of the conspirators told the mel- 
ancholy tale. The grief manifested by both Alexander and 
Constantine was apparently sincere and intense. In pas- 
sionate exclamations they gave vent to sorrow and remorse. 
But Pahlen, the governor, who had led the conspiracy, calm 
and collected, represented that the interests of the empire 
demanded a change of policy, that the death of Paul was a 
fatality, and that nothing now remained but for Alexander 
to assume the reins of government. 

"I shall be accused," exclaimed Alexander bitterly, "of 
being the assassin of my father. You promised me not to at- 
tempt his life. I am the most unhappy man in the world." 

The dead body of the emperor was placed upon a table, 
and an English physician, named Wylie, was called in to ar- 
range the features so that it should appear that he had died 
of apoplexy. The judgment of the world has ever been and 
probably ever will be divided respecting the nature of Alexan- 
der's complicity in this murder. Many suppose that he could 
not have been io-norant that the death of his father was the 
inevitable end of the conspiracy, and that he accepted that 
result as a sad necessity. Certain it is that the conspirators 
were all rewarded richly, by being entrusted with the chief 
offices of the state ; and the new monarch surrounded his 
throne with counselors whose hands were imbrued in his 
father's blood» A lady at St. Petersburg wrote to Fouche 
on the occasion of some ceremony which soon ensued, 

*' The young emperor walked preceded by the assassins 



412 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

of his grandfather, followed by those of his father, and sur- 
rounded by his own." 

" Behold," said Fouche, " a woman who speaks Tacitus." 
At St. Helena, O'Meara enquired of Napoleon if he 
thought that Paul had been insane. " Latterly," Napoleon 
repUed, "I believe that he was. At first he was strongly 
prejudiced against the Revolution, and every person con- 
cerned in it ; but afterwardj I had rendered him reasonable, 
and had changed his opinions altogether. If Paul had lived 
the English would have lost India before now. An agree- 
ment was made between Paul and myself to invade it. I 
furnished the plan. I was to have sent thirty thousand good 
troops. He was to send a similar number of the best Rus- 
sian soldiers, and forty thousand Cossacks. I was to sub- 
scribe ten millions for the purchase of camels and other req- 
uisites for crossino: the desert. The King: of Prussia was to 
have been aj^plied to by both of us to grant a passage for my 
troops through his dominions, which would have been imme- 
diately granted. I had, at the same time, made a demand to 
the King of Persia for a jDassage through his country, which 
would also have been granted, although the negotiations were 
not entirely concluded, but would have succeeded, as the Per- 
sians were desirious of profiting by it themselves."* 

On another occasion, speaking upon this same subject, 
Napoleon said to Las Casas, " Paul had been promised Malta 
the moment it was taken possession of by the English. Malta 
reduced, the English ministers denied that they had prom- 
i-^ed it to him. It is confidently stated that, on the reading ot 
this shameful falsehood, Paul felt so indignant that, seizing the 
dispatch in full council, he ran his sword through it, and or- 
dered it to be sent back, in that condition, by way of answer. 
If this be a folly, it must be allowed that it is the folly of a 
noble soul. It is the indignadon of virtue, which was incapa- 
ble until then of suspecting such baseness. 

* "Napoleon at St. Helena," p. 534. 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 4'^S 

"At the same time the English ministers, treating with us 
for the exchange of prisoners, refused to include tlie Russian 
prisoners taken in Holland, who wei'e in the actual service and 
fought for the sole cause of the English. I had hit upon the 
bent of Paul's character. I seized time by the forelock. I 
collected these Russians. I clothed them and sent them back 
without any expense. From that instant that generous heart 
was altogether devoted to rae, and, as I had no interest in 
opposition to Russia, and should never have spoken or acted 
but with justice, there is no doubt that I should have been 
enabled, for the future, to dispose of the cabinet of St. Peters- 
burg. Our enemies were sensible of the danger, and it has 
been thought that this good-will of Paul proved fatal to him. 
It might well have been the case, for there are cabinets with 
whom nothing is sacred." 

The death of Paul brought the enemies of France and the 
friends of England into power at St. Petersbui'g. • The new 
emperor, the first day after his accession to the throne, issued 
a proclamation declaring his intention to follow in the foot' 
steps of his grandmother, Catharine. He liberated all the 
English sailors whom Paul had taken from the ships laid under 
sequestration. All the decrees against the free importation 
of English merchandise were abolished; and the young em- 
peror soon wrote, with his own hand, a letter to the King of 
England, expressing his earnest desire again to establish 
friendly relations between the courts of Russia and England. 
This declaration was received in London with shouts of joy. 

Alexander was twenty-three years of age when he ascended 
the throne. A Swiss, by the name of Laharpe, a man of great 
intelligence and lofty spirit, and a republican in principle, had 
been for many years the prominent tutor of the young prince, 
and had obtained a great control over his mind. The instruc- 
tions of Laharpe, who wished to make a Washington of h\% 
pupil, were much counteracted by the despotic lessons he liad 
received from Catharine, and by the luxury, servility and iov- 



4Ti THE EMPIRE OP RUSSIA. 

ruptioii which crowded the Russian court. Naturally amiable, 
aud possessed of by no means a strong character, the young 
monarch was easily moulded by the influences which sur- 
rounded him. He evidently commenced his reign with the 
best intentions, resolved, in every way, to promote the pros- 
perity of his subjects. It is painful to observe the almost 
inevitable tendency of power to deprave the soul. History is 
tilled with the records of those sovereigns who have fallen 
from virtue to vice. 

The commencement of the reign of Alexander was hailed 
with general joy. All his first proclamations breathe the 
spirit of benevolence, of generosity, of the desire to ameliorate 
the condition of the oppressed millions. The ridiculous ordin- 
ances which Paul had issued were promptly abrogated. By 
a special edict all Russians were permitted to dress as they 
pleased, to wear twilled w^aistcoats and pantaloons, instead of 
short clothes, if they preferred them. They were permitted to 
wear round hats, to lead dogs with a leash, and to fasten their 
shoes with strings instead of buckles. A large number of 
exiles, whom Paul had sent to Siberia, were recalled, and 
many of the most burdensome requirements of etiquette, in 
tne court, were annulled. 

Though Alexander was an absolute monarch, who could 
issue any decree, subject to no restraint, he conferred upon 
the senate the power to revise these decrees, and to suggest 
any amendment ; and he also created a legislature who were 
permitted to advise respecting any regulations which they 
might think promotive of the interests of the empire. The 
will of the emperor was, however, absolute and unchecked. 
Still the appointment of these deliberative and advising bodies 
was considered an immense stride towards constitutional free- 
dom. The censorship of the press was greatly mitigated, and 
foreign books and journals were more freely introduced to the 
empire. 

Two new ministries were established by Alexander, with 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDEE. 475 

extensive responsibilities — the Ministry of the Interior, and 
that of Public Instruction. All the officers of government 
were rendered accountable to the senate, and responsible to 
the sovereign. These elements of accountability and of re- 
sponsibility had liitherto been almost unknown in Russia. 
Charitable institulions were established, and schools of dilfer- 
eut grades, lor the instruction of all classes of the people. 
Ambitious of rendering the Russian court as brilliant in all 
the appliances of luxury and art as any court in Europe, the 
emperor was indefatigable in the collection of paintings, stat- 
uary, medals and ail artistic curiosities. The contrast thus be- 
came very marked between the semi^barbarism of the provinces 
and the enlightenment and voluptuousness of the capital. 

It is worthy of remark that when Alexander ascended 
the throne there did not exist in all Russia, not even in St. Pe- 
tersburg, a single book-store.* The Russian sovereigns had 
wished to take from civilization only that which would add to 
their despotic power. Desiring to perpetuate the monopoly 
of authority, they sought to retain in their own hands the 
privileges of instruction. The impulse which Alexander had 
given to the cause of education spread throughout the empire, 
and the nobles, in the distant provinces, interested themselves 
in establishing schools. These schools were, however, very 
exclusive in their character, admitting none but the children 
of the nobles. The military schools which Catharine had es- 
tablished, with so much care, Alexander encouraged and sup- 
ported with the utmost assiduity. 

As Catharine II. had endeavored to obliterate every trace 
of the government of her murdered husband, Peter III., so 
Alexander strove to efface all vestiges of his assassmated 
iiither, Paul. He entered into the closest alliance with En- 
gland, and manifested much eagerness in his desire to gratify 

* Jlisioire Philosophique et Politique de Bussie, Depuis les Temps les Plus 
Recules jusqu'au nos Jours. Par J. Esneaux et Clienechot. Tome cinquieme, 
I). 293. 



476 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

all the. wishes of the cabinet of St. James. He even went so 
far as to consent to pay a sum of eight hundred thousand 
rubles ($600,000), as an indemnity to England for the loss 
the English merchants had incurred by the embargo placed 
by Paul upon their ships. Every day the partiality of the 
young em2)eror for England became more manifest. In the 
meantime Napoleon was unwearied in his endeavors to secure 
the good-will of a monarch whose sword would have so im- 
portant an influence in settling the quarrel between aristoc- 
racy and democracy which then agitated Europe. Napoleon 
was so far successful that, on the 8th of October, 1801, a treaty 
of friendly aUiance was signed at Paris between France and 
Russia. The battle of Marengo had compelled Austria to 
withdraw from the coalition against France; and the peace 
of Luneville, which Napoleon signed witlti Austria in February, 
1801, followed by peace with Spain and Naples in March, with 
the pope in July, with Bavaria in August and with Portugal 
in September, left England to struggle alone against tiiose 
republican principles which in the eyes of aristocratic Europe 
seemed equally obnoxious whether moulded under the form 
of the republic, the consulate or the empire. 

The English cabinet, thus left to struggle alone, w\is com- 
pelled, though very reluctantly, by the murmurs of the British 
people, to consent to peace with France ; and the treaty of 
Amiens, which restored peace to entire Europe, was signed in 
March, 1802. A few days after this event, peace was signed 
with Turkey, and thus through the sagacity and energy of 
Napoleon, every hostile sword was sheathed in Europe and 
on tlie confines of Asia. But the treaty of Amiens was a 
sore humiliation to the cabinet of St. James, and hardly a 
year had elapsed ere the British government, in May, 1803, 
. again drew tlie sword, and all Europe was again involved in 
war. It was a wai", isaid William Pitt truly, " of armed opin- 
ions." 

The Russian embassador at Paris, M. Marcow, who under 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 477 

Catharine II. had shown liimself bitterly hostile to the French 
republic, was declared to be guilty of entering into inti'igues 
to assist the English, now making war upon France, and he 
"was ordered immediately to leave the kingdom. Alexander 
did not resent this act, so obviously proper, but rewarded the 
dismissed minister with an annual pension of tw^elve thousand 
rubles (89,000). 

During this short interval of peace Alexander was raising 
an army of live hundred thousand men, to extend and consoli- 
date his dominions on the side of Turkey. His frontiers there 
were dimly defined, and his authority but feebly exerted. He 
pushed his armies into Georgia and took firm possession of 
that vast province extending between the Black vSea and the 
Caspian, and embracing some eighteen thousand square miles. 
At the same time the blasts of his bugles were heard rever- 
berating through the defiles of the Balkan, and his fortresses 
were reared and his banners planted there. The monarchs of 
Russia, for many generations, had fixed a wistful eye upon 
Constantinople, but no one had coveted the possession of that 
important city so intensely as now did Alexander. " Con- 
stantinople," said he often, " is the key of my house." 

The arrest of the DuTie d'Enghien, in the territory of the 
Duke of Baden, and his execution as a traitor for being in 
aims against his own country, excited the indignation of 
Alexander. Naj^oleon, immediately after the arrest, had 
made an apology to the Duke of Baden for the violation of 
a neutral territory, and this apology was accepted by the 
duke as satisfactory. •Nevertheless, Alexander through his 
embassador, sent the following message to the court of tlie 
First Consul : 

"The Emperor Alexander, as mediator and guarantee of 
the continental peace, has notified the States of the German 
empire that he considers the action of the First Consul as 
endangeiing their safety and independence, and that he does 
not doubt that th( First Consul will take promnt measures to 



478 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

reassure those governments by giving satisfactory explana- 
tions." 

IS'apoleon regarded this interference of Alexander as im- 
pertinent, and caused his minister to reply, 

"What would Alexander have said if the First Consul 
had imperiously demanded explanations respecting the mur- 
der of Paul I., and had pretended to constitute himself an 
avenger? How is it, that when the sovereign of the terri- 
tory, uhich it is said has been violated, makes no complaint; 
when all the princes, his neighbors and his allies, are silent — 
how is it that the Emperor of Russia, least of all interested 
in the affair, raises his voice alone? Does it not arise from 
complicity with England, that machinator of conspiracies 
against the power and the life of the First Consul ? Is not 
Russia engaged in similar conspiracies at Rome, at Dresden 
and at Paris ? If Russia desires war, why does she not 
frankly say so, instead of endeavoring to secure that end 
indirectly ?" 

In May of 1804, KajDoIeon assumed the imperial title. 
Alexander, denying the right of the people to elect their 
own sovereign, refused to recognize the empire. Hence in- 
creasing irritation arose. England, trembling in view of the 
camp at Boulogne, roused all her energies to rally Europe to 
strike France in the rear. In this effort she was signally suc- 
cessful. Russia, Sweden, Austria, Turkey and Rome, were 
engaged in vigorous cooperation with England against France. 
Holland, Switzerland and Bavaria ranged themselves on the 
yide of Napoleon. . 

On the 8th of September, 1805, the armies of Austria and 
Russia were on the march for France, and the Austrian troops, 
in overwhelming numbers, invaded Bavaria. Napoleon was 
prepared for the blow. The camp at Boulogne was broken 
up, and his troops were instantly on the march towards the 
Rhine. In the marvelous campaign of Ulm the Austrian 
army was crushed, almost annihilated, and the victorious bat- 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 47& 

talions of Napoleon marched resistlessly to Vienna. Alex- 
ander, with a vast army, was hurrying forward, by forced 
marches, to assist his Austrian ally. At Olmutz lie met tlie 
Emperor of Austria on the retreat with thirty thousand men, 
the wreck of that magnificent army with which he had com- 
menced his march upon France. Here the two armies formed 
a junction — seventy thousand Russians receiving into their 
ranks thirty thousand Austrians. The two emperors, Alex- 
ander and Francis, rode at the head of this formidable force. 

On the 1st of December, Napoleon, leading an army of 
seventy thousand men, encountered these, his combined foes, 
on the plains of Austerlitz. " To-morrow," said he, " before 
niglitfall, that army shall be mine !" A day of carnage, such 
as war has seldom seen, ensued. From an eminence the Em- 
perors of Russia and Austria witnessed the destruction of their 
hosts. No language can describe the tumult which pervaded 
the ranks of the retreating foe. The Russians, wild with dis- 
may, rent the skies with their barbaric shouts, and wreaked 
their vengeance upon all the helpless villages they encountered 
in their path. 

Francis, the Emperor of Austria, utterly ruined, sought 
an interview with his conqueror, and implored peace. Napo- 
leon, as ever, was magnanimous, and was eager to sheathe the 
sword which he had only drawn in self defense. Francis en- 
deavored to throw the blame of the war upon England. 

*' The English," said he, " are a nation of merchants. To 
secure for themselves the commerce of the world they are 
willing to set the continent in flames!" 

The Austrian monarch, having obtained very favorable 
terms for himself, interceded for Alexander. " The Russian 
army," Napoleon replied, "is surrounded. Not a man can 
escape me. If, however, your majesty will promise me that 
Alexander shall immediately return to Russia, I will stop the 
advance of my columns." 

The pledge was given, and Napoleon then sent General 



480 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Savary to the head-quarters of Alexander, to inquire if he 
would ratify the armistice. 

" I am happy to see you," said the emperor to the envoy. 
" The occasion has been very glorious for your arms. That 
day will take nothing from the reputation your master has 
earned in so many battles. It was my first engagement. I 
confess that the rapidity of his maneuvers gave me no time 
to succor the menaced points. Everywhere you were at least 
double the number of our forces." 

" Sire," Savary replied, " our force was twenty-five thou- 
sand less than yours. And even of that the whole was not 
very warmly engaged. But we maneuvered much, and the 
same division combated at several difierent points. Therein 
lies the art of war. The emperor, who has seen forty pitched 
battles, is never wanting in that particular. He is still ready 
to march against the Archduke Charles, if your majesty does 
not accept the armistice." 

'* What guarantee does your master require," continued 
Alexander, " and what security can I have that your troops 
will not prosecute their movements against me ?" 

" He asks only your word of honor," Savary replied. 
" He has instructed me the moment it is given to suspend the 
pursuit." 

" I give it with pleasure," rejoined the emperor, " and 
should it ever be your fortune to visit St. Petersburg, I hope 
that I may be able to render my capital agreeable to you." 

Hostihties immediately ceased, and the broken columns 
of the Russian troops returned to their homes. The Austro- 
Russian army, in the disastrous day of Austerlitz, lost in killed, 
wounded and prisoners, over forty thousand men. It is stated 
tliat Alexander, when flying from the bloody field with his dis- 
comfited troops, his path being strewed with the wounded and 
the dead, posted placards along the route, with the inscription, 

" I commend my unfortunate soldiers to the generosity of 
the Emperor Napoleon !" 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 481 

■ Alexander, young and ambitious, was very mucli chagrined 
by this utter discomfiture. Austerlitz was his first battle ; 
and instead of covering him with renown it had overwhelmed 
him with disgrace. He was anxious for an opportunity to 
wipe away the stain. A new coalition was soon formed against 
France, consisting of England, Russia, Prussia and Sweden. 
Alexander eagerly entered into this coalition, hoping for an 
opportunity to acquire that military fame which, in this lost 
world, has been ever deemed so essential to the reputation of 
a sovereign. The remonstrance of IS'apoleon, with Russia, 
was noble and unanswerable. 

" Why," said he, " should hostilities arise between France 
and Russia ? Perfectly independent of each other, they are 
impotent to inflict evil, but all-powerful to communicate bene- 
fits. If the Emperor of France exercises a great influence in 
Italy, the tzar exerts a still greater influence over Turkey and 
Persia. If the cabinet of Russia pretends to have a right to 
afiix limits to the power of France, without doubt it is equally 
disposed to allow the Emperor of the French to prescribe the 
bounds beyond which Russia is not to pass. Russia has par- 
titioned Poland. Can she then complain that France possesses 
Belgium and the left banks of the Rhine ? Russia has seized 
upon the Crimea, the Caucasus, and the northern provinces of 
Persia. Can she deny that the right of self-pi-eservation gives 
France a right to demand an equivalent in Europe ? 

" Let every power begin by restoring the conquests which 
it has made during the last fifty years. Let them reestablish 
Poland, restore Venice to its senate, Trinidad to Spain, Cey- 
lon to Holland, the Crimea to the Porte, the Caucasus and 
Georgia to Persia, the kingdom of Mysore to the sons of 
Tippoo Saib, and the Mahratta States to their lawful owners ; 
and then the other powers may have some title to insist that 
France shall retire within her ancient limits. It is the fashion 
to speak of the ambition of France. Had she chosen to pre- 
serve her conquests, the half of Austria, the Venetian States^ 

21 



482 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the States of Holland and Switzerland and the kingdom of 
Naples would have been in her possession. The limits of 
France are, in reality, the Adige and the Rhine. Has it 
passed either of these limits ? Had it fixed on the Solza and 
the Drave, it would not have exceeded the bounds of its con- 
quests." 

In September, 1806, the Prussian army, two hundred 
thousand strong, commenced their march for the invasion of 
France. Alexander had also marshaled his barbarian legions 
and was eagerly following, wi^h two hundred thousand of the 
most highly disciplined Russian troops in his train. Napoleon 
contemplated with sorrow the rising of this new storm of 
war and woe ; but with characteristic vigor he prepared to 
meet it. As he left Paris for the campaign, in a parting mes- 
sage to the senate he said, 

"In so just a war, which we have not provoked by any 
act, by any pretense, the true cause of which it would be im- 
possible to assign, and where we only take arms to defend 
ourselves, we depend entirely upon the support of the laws, 
and upon that of the people whom circumstances call upon to 
give fresh proofs of their devotion and courage." 

In the battle of Jena, which took place on the 14th of 
October, the Prussian array was nearly annihilated, leaving in a 
few hours more than forty thousand men in killed, wounded 
and prisoners'. In less than a month the conquest of entire 
Prussia was achieved, and Napoleon was pursuing Frederic 
William, who, with the wreck of the Prussian army was hasten- 
ing to take refuge in the bosom of the Russian hosts which were 
aj)proaching. December had now come with its icy blasts, 
and Napoleon, leading his victorious troops to the banks of 
the Vistula, more than a thousand miles from France, estab- 
lished them in winter quarters, waiting until spring for the 
renewal of the campaign. 

Alexander, terrified by the destruction of his Prussian 
allies, halted his troops upon the other side of the Vistula, 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER. 483 

and from his vast realms collected recruits. For a few weeks 
the storms of winter secured a tacit armistice. 

In February, 1807, Alexander assumed the oflfensive and 
endeavored to surjjrise Napoleon in his encampment. But 
Napoleon was on the alert. A series of terrific battles en- 
sued, in which the French were invariably the victors. The 
retreating Russians, hotly pursued, at last rallied on the field 
of Eylau. Napoleon had already driven them two hundred 
and forty miles from his encampment on the Vistula. 

"It was the 7th of February, 1807. The night was dark 
and intensely cold as the Russians, exhausted by the retreat 
of the day, took their positions for the desperate battle of 
the morrow. There was a gentle swell of land extending 
two or three miles, which skirted a vast, bleak, unsheltered 
plain, over which the wintry gale drifted the snow. Upon 
this ridge the Russians in double lines formed themselves in 
battle array. Five hundred pieces of cannon were langed in 
battery, to hurl destruction into the bosoms of their foes. 
They then threw themselves upon the icy ground for their 
frigid bivouac. A fierce storm had already risen, which 
spread over the sleeping host its mantle of snow." 

Napoleon came also upon the field, in the darkness of the 
night and of the storm, and placed his array in position for 
the battle which the dawn v/ould usher in. Two hundred 
pieces of artillery were planted to reply to the Russian bat- 
teries. There were eighty thousand Russians on the ridge, 
sixty thousand Frenchmen on the plain, and separated by a 
distance of less than lialf a cannon shot. The sentinels of 
either array could almost touch each other with their muskets. 

The morning had not yet dawned wlien the cannonade 
commenced. Tiie earth shook beneath its roar. A storm of 
snow at the same lime swept over the plain blinding and 
smothering assailants and assailed. The smoke of the bat- 
tle blended with the storm had spread over the contending 
hosts a sulphurous canopy black as midnight. Even the 



484 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

flash of the guns could hardly be discerned through tlie 
gloom. All the day long, and until ten o'clock at night, the 
battle raged with undiminitjhed fury. One half of the Rus- 
sian army was now destroyed, and the remainder, imable 
longer to endure the conflict, sullenly retreated. NajH)leon 
remained master of the field, which exhibited such a scene of 
misery as had never before met even his eye. When con- 
gratulated upon his victory by one of his officers he replied 
sadly, 

" To a father who loses his children, victory has no charms. 
When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion." 



CHAPTEH XXX. 

EEiaN OP ALEXANDER I. 

From 1807 to 1825. 
Thb Field of Eylatj. — Lettee to the King of Prussia. — Eene-wal op the Wae.— • 

DlSCOSTFITUEB OF THE ALLIES. — BaTTLE OF FrIEDLAND. — ThE EaFT AT TiLSIT. — 

Intimacy of the Emperors. — Alexander's Designs upon Turkey. — Alliance 
BETWEEN France and Kussia. — Object of the Continental System. — Perplexi- 
ties OF Alexander. — Driven by the Nobles to War. — Eesults of the Russian 
Campaign. — Napoleon Vanquished. — Last Days of Alexander. — His Sickness 
AND Death. 

FROM the field of Eyiau, the Russians and Prussians re- 
treated to the Niemen. ISTapoleon remained some days 
upon the field to nurse the wounded, and, anxious for peace, 
wrote to the King of Prussia in the following terms : 

" I desire to put a period to the misfortunes of your 
family, and to organize, as speedily as possible, the Prussian 
monarchy. I desire peace with Russia, and, provided that 
the cabinet of St. Petersburg has no designs upon the Turk- 
ish empire, I see no difficulty in obtaining it. I have no 
hesitation in sending a minister to Memil to take part in a 
congress of France, England, Sweden, Russia, Prussia and 
Turkey. But as such a congress may last many years, which 
would not suit the present condition of Prussia, your majesty 
will, I am persuaded, be of the opinion that I have taken the 
simplest method, and one which is most likely to secure the 
prosperity of your subjects. At all events I entreat your 
majesty to believe in my sincere desire to reestablish ami- 
cable relations with so friendly a power as Prussia, and that I 
wish to do the same with Russia and England." 

These advances were haughtily rejected by both Prussia 



486 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

and Russia ; and Napoleon returned to the Vistula to wait 
until the opening of Sj^ving, when the question was again to 
be referred to the arbitrament of battle. Both parties made 
vigorous preparations for the strife. Alexander succeeded in 
gathering around him one hundred and forty thousand sol- 
diers. But Napoleon had assembled one hundred and sixty 
thousand whom he could rapidly concentrate upon any point 
between the Vistula and the Niemen. 

In June the storm of war commenced with an assault by 
the allies. Field after field was red with blood as the hosts 
of France drove their vanquished foes before them. On the 
10th of June, Alexander, with Frederic William riding by 
his side, had concentrated ninety thousand men upon the 
plains of Fiiedland, on the banks of the AUer. Here the 
Russians were compelled to make a final stand and await a 
decisive conflict. As Napoleon rode upon a height and sur- 
veyed his foes, caught in an elbow of the river, he said ener- 
getically, " We have not a moment to lose. One does not 
twice catch an enemy in such a trap." He immediately com- 
municated to his aids his plan of attack. Grasping the arm 
of Ney, he pointed to the dense masses of the Russians clus- 
tered before the town of Friedland, and said, 

" Yonder is the goal. March to it without looking about 
you. Break into that thick mass whatever it costs. Enter 
Friedland ; take the bridges and give yourself no concern 
about what may happen on your right, your left or your rear. 
The array and I shall be there to attend to that." 

The whole French line now simultaneously advanced. It 
was one of the most sublime and awful of the spectacles of 
war. For a few hours there was the gleam and the roar of 
war's most terrific tempest and the Russian army was de- 
stroyed. A frightful spectacle of ruin was exhibited. The 
shattered bands rushed in dismay into the stream, where 
thousands were swept away by the current, while a storm of 
bullets from the French batteries swept the river, and the 



REIGN OF ALEXANDER I, 487 

water ran red with blood. It was in vain for Alexander to 
make any further assaults. In ten days Napoleon had taken 
one hundred and tv/enty pieces of cannon, and had killed, 
wounded or taken prisoners, sixty thousand Russians. 

Alexander now implored peace. It was all that Napoleon 
desired. The Niemen alone now separated the victorious 
French and the routed Russians. A raft was moored in the 
middle of the stream, upon which a tent was erected with 
magnificent decorations, and here the two young emperors 
met to arrange the terms of peace. Alexander, like Francis 
of Austria, endeavored to throw the blame of the war upon 
England. Almost his first words to Napoleon were, 

" I hate the English as much as you do. I am ready to 
second you in all your enterprises against them." 

" In that case," Napoleon replied, " every thing will be 
easily arranged and peace is already made." 

The interview lasted two hours, and Alexander was fasci- 
nated by the genius of Napoleon. " Never," he afterwards 
said, " did I love any man as I loved that man." Alexander 
was then but thirty years of age, and apparently he became 
inspired with an enthusiastic admiration of Napoleon which 
had never been surpassed. At the close of the interview, he 
crossed to the French side of the river, and took up his resi- 
dence with Napoleon at Tilsit. Every day they rode side by 
side, dined together, and passed almost every hour in con- 
fiding conversation. It was Napoleon's great object to with- 
draw Alexander from the English alliance. In these long 
interviews the fate of Turkey was a continual topic of con- 
versation. Alexander was ready to make almost any con- 
cession if Napoleon would consent that Russia should take 
Constantinople. But Napoleon was irreconcilably ojiposed to 
this. It was investing Russia with too formidable power. He 
was willing that the emperor should take the provinces on the 
Danube, but could not consent that he should pass the Balkan 
and annex the proud city of Constantine to his realms. 



488 THE EMPIEE OF RUSSIA. 

One day when the two emperors w^ere closeted together 
with the map of Europe spread out before them, Napoleon 
placed his finger upon Constantinople, and was overheard by 
Meneval to say, with great earnestness, " Constantinople ! 
never! It is the empire of the world." 

" All the Emperor Alexander's thoughts," said Napoleon 
at St. Helena, " are directed to the conquest of Turkey. We 
have had many discussions about it. At first I was pleased 
with his proposals, becanse I thought it would enlighten the 
world to drive these brutes out of Egypt. But when I re- 
flected upon its consequences and saw what a tremendous 
weight of power it would give to Eussia, on account of the 
number of Greeks in the Turkish dominions who would nat- 
urally join the Russians, I refused to consent to it, especially 
as Alexander wanted to get Constantinople, which I would 
not allow, as it would destroy the equilibrium of power in 
Europe." 

For three weeks the emperors remained together at Tilsit, 
and then they separated devoted friends. Turkey had for 
some time been disposed to regard France as its protector 
against the encroachments of Russia, and was disposed to 
enter into friendly alliance. By the treaty of Tilsit, Russia 
consented to make peace with Turkey, and also to exert all 
her influence to promote peace between France and England. 
The efibrts of Alexander not being successful in this respect, 
he broke off" his connection with Great Britain, and became 
still more intimately allied with France. The British embas- 
sador, Lord Gower, was informed that his presence was no 
longer desired at St. Petersburg. The second bombardment 
of Copenhagen, and the seizure of the Danish fleet gave oc- 
casion for Alexander to declare war against England. The 
war, however, which ensued between the two countries, 
amounted chiefly to a cessation of trade. England, pro- 
tected by her fleet, was invulnerable ; and Napoleon and 
Alexander both agreed that the only possible way of com- 



EEIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 489 

peJing England to assent to peace, was to shut her out from 
commerce with the rest of Europe. This was the origin of 
the famous continental system, by which it was endeavored 
to force the belligerent islanders to peace by cutting off their 
trade. 

Alexander called upon Sweden to unite in this confederacy 
against England. The Swedes declined. Alexander overran 
tlie whole of Finland with his troops, and in 1809 it was per- 
manently annexed to the Russian empire. Just before this 
event, in September, 1808, Napoleon and Alexander held 
another interview at Erfurth. The loss of British commerce 
was almost as great a calamity to Russia as to England, and the 
Russian people murmured loudly. England wished to arrest 
the progress of democratic ideas in France by restoring the 
rejected Bourbons to the throne. In these views the nobles 
of Russia sympathized cordially, and they were exasperated 
that Alexander should allow personal friendship for Napoleon 
to interfere with the commerce of their country, and with the 
maintenance of aristocratic privilege in Europe. The Russian 
nobles had nothing to gain by the establishment of free insti- 
tutions in France, and the discontent with the measures of 
Alexander became so general and so loudly expressed that he 
began to waver. 

The only hope of Napoleon was in combining Europe in a 
league which should starve England into peace. He watched 
the vacillating spirit of Alexander with alarm, and arranged 
the interview at Erfurth that he might strengthen him in his 
friendly purposes. Alexander was by the most solemn pledges 
bound to be faithful to this alliance. He had attacked Napo- 
leon and had been conquered ; and the southern provinces of 
Russia were at the mercy of the conqueror. Under these 
circumstances the treaty of Tilsit was made, in which Alex- 
ander, in consideration of benefits received, agreed to cooper- 
ate with Napoleon in that continental system which seemed 
vital to the safety of France. Napoleon was well aware of 

21* 



490 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the immense presrsure which was brought to bear upon the 
mind of the Russian tzar to induce him to swerve from his 
ao-reement. Hence the conference at Erfurth. During^ the 
deliberations at Erfurth it appears that Alexander consented 
that Napoleon should place the crown of Spain upon the brow 
of his brother Joseph, in consideration of Napoleon consent- 
ing that Russia should take possession of the two Turkish 
provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia. And again tie most 
strenuous efforts were made by the united emperors to induce 
inflexible England to sheathe the sw^ord. All the nations on 
the continent were at peace. England alone was prosecuting 
the war. But the English aristocracy felt that they could not 
remain firm in their possessions while principles of democratic 
freedom were dominant in France. The fundamental principle 
of the government of the empire was honor to merit, not to 
birth. The two emperors wrote as follows to the King of 
England, imploring peace : 

" Sire — The present situation of Europe has brought us 
together at Erfurth. Our first wish is to fulfill the desire of 
all nations, and, by a speedy pacification with your majesty to 
take the most effectual means of relieving the sufferings of 
Europe. The long and bloody war which has convulsed the 
continent is at an end, and can not be renewed. Many changes 
have taken place in Europe; many governments have been 
destroyed. The cause is to be found in the uneasiness and 
the sufferings occasioned by the stagnation of maritime com- 
merce. Greater changes still may take place, and all will be 
unfavorable to the politics of England. " Peace, therefore, is 
at the same time the common cause of the nations of the con- 
tinent and of Great Britain. We unite in requesting your 
majesty to lend an ear to the voice of humanity, to suppre-s 
that of the "passions, to reconcile contending interests, and to 
secure the welfare of Europe and of the generations over 
which Providence has placed us." 

The only notice taken of this letter was in a communica- 



REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 491 

tion to the ministers of France and Russia, in which it was 
stated that the " English ministers could not reply to the two 
sovereigns', since one of them was not recognized by England." 
A new coalition was soon formed, and Austria commenced 
another march upon France, which led to the campaign of 
Wagram, in which Austria was humbled as never before. 
Austria was now compelled, in conjunction with France and 
Russia, and most of the other European powers, to take part 
in the continental blockade. Alexander, shackled by his no- 
bles, had not been able to render Napoleon the assistance he 
had promised in this war. Loud murmurs and threats of 
assassination were rising around him, and instead of rigorously 
enforcing the exclusion of English goods, he allowed them to 
be smuggled into the country. This was ruinous to Napo- 
leon's system. Remonstrances and recriminations ensued. At 
length English goods were freely introduced, provided they 
entered under American colors. Napoleon, to put a stop to 
this smuggling, which the local authorities pretended they 
could not prevent, seized several of the principal ports of 
northern Germany, and incorporated the possessions of the 
Duke of Oldenburg, a near relative of Alexander, with 
France.* 

These measures increased the alienation between France 

* Colonel Napier, in his "Peninsular War," very justly observes, "The 
real principle of Napoleon's government, and secret of his popularity, made 
hira the people's monarch, not the sovereign of the aristocracy. Hence Mr. 
Pitt called him ' the child and the champion of democracy,' a truth as evident 
as that Mr. Pitt and his successors ' were the children and the champions of 
aristocracy.' Hence also the privileged classes of Europe consistently turned 
their natural and implacable hatred of the French Revolution to his person ; 
for they saw that in him innovation had found a protector; that he alone, 
having given preeminence to a system so hateful to them, was really what he 
called himself, The State. The treaty of Tilsit, therefore, although it placed 
Napoleon in a commanding situation with regard to the potentates of Europe, 
unmasked the real nature of the war, and brought him and England, the re- 
spective champions of Equality and Privilege, into more direct contact. Peace 
could not be between them while they were both strong, and all that tiio 
French emperor had hitherto gained only enabled him to choose his fulu."^ 
field of battle-" 



492 THE EMPIRE OF BUSSIA. 

and Austria. In the mean time Alexander was wasfinor war 
with Turkey, and was pusliing liis conquests rapidly on 
towards the city of Constantine. These encroachments 
France contemplated with alarm. By the peace of Bucha- 
rest, signed May 28th, 1812, the whole of Bessarabia was an- 
nexed to Russia, and the limits of the empire were extended 
from the Dnieper to the Pruth. Tlie Russian nobles were 
all eager to join the European aristocracy in a war against 
democratic France, and it was now evident that soon a col- 
lision must take place between the cabinet of the Tuileries and 
that of St. Petersburg. It was almost impossible for Alexan- 
der to resist the pressure which urged him to open his ports 
to the English. The closing of those ports was Napoleon's 
only hope of compelling England to sheathe the sword. 
Hence w^ar became a fatality. 

Russia, in anticipation of a rupture, began to arm, and 
ordered a levy of four men out of every hundred. In prep- 
aration for war she made peace with Persia and Turkey, and 
entered into an alliance with Sweden. England was highly 
gratified by this change, and was soon on most fjiendly terms 
with the Russian cabinet. A treaty was speedily formed by 
England, with both Russia and Sweden, by which these latter 
powers agreed to open theij* ports for free commercial rela- 
tions with England, and they entered into an alliance offen- 
sive and defensive with that power. As England was still in 
arms against France, this was virtually a declaration of war. 
This violation also of the treaty of Tilsit was the utter ruin 
of Xapoleon's plans. To compel Russia to return to the con- 
tinental system, Napoleon prepared for that Russian campaign 
which is one of the most awful tragedies of history. The 
world is so full of the narratives of that subUme drama, that 
the story need not be repeated here. It is just to say that 
Napoleon exhausted all the arts of diplomacy to accomplish 
hLs purpose before he put his armies in motion. 

The Emperor Alexandei followed the French in their re- 



EEIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 4^3 

treat from Moscow, aod with all the powers of Europe allied, 
crossed the Rhine, and on the 31st of March, 1814, at the 
head of an allied array of half a million of men entered Paris 
a conqueror. His sympathies were warmly enlisted in behalf 
of his fallen friend Napoleon. In the negotiations which en- 
sued he exerted himself strongly in his favor. It was only by 
assuming the most energetic attitude against England, Aus- 
tria and Prussia, that he succeeded in obtaining for Napoleon 
the sovereignty of Elba. Alexander was very magnanimous, 
but his voice was lost in the clamor of the sovereiorus who 
surrounded him. 

Napoleon retired to Elba. The Bourbons reascended the 
throne of France. Alexander, with the King of Prussia, vis- 
ited England, where he was received with great distinction. 
Returning to Russia he devoted himself to the welfare of his 
kingdom in the vain attempt to reconcile popular progress 
with political despotism. Alexander was evidently saddened 
by the fate of Napoleon, and on his return to St. Petersburg 
persistently refused to accept the public rejoicings which were 
proffered him. 

Napoleon escaped from Elba, where the influence of Alex- 
ander had placed hira, and again was on the throne of France. 
Alexander hesitated whether again to march aginst him. He 
yielded, however, to the solicitations of his associated sover- 
eigns, and at the head of an army of one hundred and sixty 
thousand men, was again on the march for Paris. He was 
apprehensive that the dismemberment of the French empire, 
which was contemplated, might render Austria and Prussia 
too powerful for the repose of Europe. Upon the second capi- 
tulation of Paris, after the battle of Waterloo, Alexander in- 
sisted that France should at least retain the limits ^he had in 
1790. Upon this basis the new treaty was concluded. 

It is an interesting fact that the celebrated Juliana, Bar- 
oness of Krudoner, was mainly instrumental in the organiza- 
tion of the Holy Alliance, which was at this time funned. 



494 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

She had wealth, wit and beauty, and had been supremely de- 
voted to pleasure, shining among the most brilliant ornaments 
of St. Petersburg, Paris and Vienna. Weary of a life of 
gayety, she seems to have turned to religion and to have 
become a devout and earnest Christian. Her enthusiasm was 
roused with the idea of putting a stop to war, and of truly 
Christianizing Euroj^e. She hastened to Paris, when the allied 
sovereigns were there, and obtained an interview with the 
Russian tzar. Alexander was by nature of a devotional turn 
of mind, and the terrific scenes through which he had passed 
had given him a meditative and pensive spirit. He listened 
eagerly to the suggestions of Madame Krudoner, and, aided 
by her, sketched as follows the plan of the Holy Alliance: 

"In the name of the sacred and invisible Trinity, their 
majesties, the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and 
the Emperor of Russia, considering the momentous events 
which have occured in Europe during the last three years, 
and especially the blessing which it has pleased Providence to 
confer on those States which trust in him, and being fully con- 
vinced of the necessity of taking, as the rule of life, in all 
their affairs, the sublime truths which the holy religion of our 
Saviour teaches us, 

"Declare solemnly that the present act has no other object 
than to proclaim to the whole world their unalterable resolu- 
tion to take, as their only guide, both in the internal adminis- 
tration of their respective States, and in their political rela- 
tions with other governments, those principles of justice, 
Christian charity and peace, which, far from being exclusively 
applicable to private individuals, should have an immediate 
influence upon the counsels of princes, and should regulate 
all their measures, as being the only means of consolidating 
human institutions and remedying their imperfections. Con- 
sequently their majesties have agreed upon the following res- 
olutions : 

" Article I. In conformity with the declaration of the 



REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 495 

holy Scriptures, which command all men to regard each other 
as brothers, the three contracting monarchs will remain united 
to each other by the ties of sincere and indissoluble fraternity 
Regarding themselves as private individuals, they \vill rendei 
each other, at all times, and in all places, aid and assistance ; 
and considering themselves, in respect to their people and 
armies, as fathers of families, they will rule in the same spirit 
of fraternity, that religion, peace and justice may be pro- 
tected. 

"Article II. Also the only obligation of rigor, whether it 
be between these governments or their subjects, shall consist 
in rendering each other all sorts of service, and of testifying 
towards each other that unalterable benevolence and that 
mutual affection which shall lead them to guard one another 
as members of one and the same Christian family. The three 
allied princes, regarding themselves as delegated by Prov- 
idence to govern three branches of this family, Austria, 
Prussia and Russia, recognize that the Christian world, of 
w^hich they and their people compose a part, can have, in real- 
ity, no other sovereign than him to whom belongs all power, 
because in him alone are the treasures of love, of science and 
of infinite wisdom — that is to say, God, our divine Saviour, 
the word of the Most High, the word of hfe. Consequently 
their majesties recommend to their people, with the greatest 
solicitude, and as the only means of enjoying that peace which 
springs from a good conscience, and which alone is durable, 
to strengthen themselves daily more and more in the exercise 
of those duties taught to the human family by the divine 
Saviour. 

"Article III. All the powers who believe that they 
ought solemnly to profess the principles which have dictated 
this act, and who recognize how important it is for the wel- 
fare of nations, too long agitated, that these truths should 
hereafter exercise over the destinies of the human family that 
mfluence which they ought to exert, shall be received, with 



496 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the same ardor and aifection, into this Holy Alliance. Done 
at Paris, in the year of our Lord, 1814, September 25, and 
siimed, Francis, Frederic William and Alexander." 

Such was the bond of the Holy Alliance. It was drawn 
up in the hand-writing of Alexander. Subsequently it w^as 
signed by the Kings of England and France, and by nearly 
all the sovereigns of Europe. The pope declined signing, as 
it was not consistent with his dignity to be a member of a 
confederacy of which he was not the head. These principles, 
api)arently so true and salutary, became vitiated by the un- 
derlying of principles which gave them all their force. The 
alliance became in reality a conspiracy of the crowmed heads 
of Europe against the liberties of their subjects; and thus 
despotism sat enthroned. The liberal spirit, which was then 
breaking out all over the continent of Europe, was thus, for 
a time, effectually crushed. It can hardly be supposed that 
Alexander intended the Holy Alliance to accomplish the 
work which it subsequently performed. 

Alexander, on his return to Russia, devoted himself ener- 
getically to the government of his vast realms, taking long and 
fatiguing journeys, and manifesting much interest in the ele- 
vation of the serfs to freedom. The latter years of Alexander 
wei-e clouded with sorrow. He was not on good terms with ' 
his wife, and the death of all his children rendered his home 
desolate. His health failed and some deep grief seemed ever 
to prey upon his spirits. It is supposed that the melancholy 
tate of Xapoleon, dying in a hut at St. Helena, and of whom 
he had said, ^'Xever did I love a man as I have loved that 
man I" weighed heavily upon him. He was constantly haunted 
by fears of a rising of the oppressed people, and to repel that 
danger was becoming continually more despotic. 

In the year 1825, Alexander, sick, anxious and melancholy, 
took a long journey, with his wife, to Tanganroy, a small town 
upon the Sea of Azof, tifteen hundred miles from St. Peters- 
buii^. He had for some time looked forward with dread to 



EEIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 497 

his appearance before the bar of God. A sense of sin op 
pressed him, and he had long sought relief with prayers and 
tears. His despondency led him to many forebodings that he 
should not live to return from this journey. 

The morning before he left St. Petersburg, at the early 
hour of four o'clock, he visited the monastery where the re- 
mains of his children were entombed, and at their grave spent 
some time in prayer. Wrapped in his cloak, in unbroken 
silence he listened to the " chant for the dead," and then com- 
menced his journey. No peasant whom he met on the way 
had a heavier heart than throbbed in the bosom of the sov- 
ereign. For hours he sat in the carriage with the empress, 
with whom in grief he had become reconciled, and hardly a 
word was uttered. At length they arrived upon the shores 
of Azof. The emperor took a rapid tour through these prov- 
inces, visiting among other places Sevastopol, which he had 
long been fortifying. He was so much struck with the mag- 
nificence of this place that he remarked, " Should I ever re- 
sign the reins of government, I should wish to retire to this 
city, that I might here terminate my career !" 

Returning to his wife at Tanganroy, he was seized with a 
fever, probably caused by care and toil. The disease w^as so 
rapid in its progress as to lead many to suppose that he was 
falling a victim to poison. On the approach of death, per- 
ceiving that he w^as dying, he requested that he might be 
raised upon his pillow, that he might once more behold the 
light of the sun. He simply remarked, " How beautiful is the 
day !" and fell back upon his pillow to die. The empress was 
weeping by his side. He took her hand, pressed it tenderly 
as if bidding her an eternal adieu, and died. It was the 1st 
of December, 1825. 

The empress Elizabeth in this sad hour forgot all her 
wrongs ; for the emperor had by no means been to her a 
faithful husband. She wrote to her friends, " Our angel is in 



498 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

heaven ; and, as for me, I still linger on earth : but I hope 
soon to be reunited with him in the skies !" 

The cry immediately resounded through Europe that Alex- 
ander had fallen by poison. As the emperor had no children 
living, the crown, by hereditary descent, passed to his next 
brother, Constantine. Alexander had long been conscious 
that Constantine did not possess suitable qualifications to gov- 
ern, and Constantine himself, frivolous and pleasure-loving, 
was not at all emulous of imperial power. When a mere boy 
he had been married to a German princess, but fifteen years 
of age. They endured each other through the angry strifes 
of four years and then separated. Constantine became enam- 
ored of the daughter of a Polish count, and sought a divorce. 
Alexander consented to this aiTangement on condition that 
Constantine would resign all right to the throne. The terms 
were gladly accepted, and Constantine signed the following 
renunciation, which was kept secret until the occasion should 
arise for it to be proraulated. 

" Conscious that I do not possess the genius, the talents or 
the strength necessary to fit me for the dignity of a sovereign, 
to which my birth would give me a right, I entreat your im- 
perial majesty to transfer that right to him to whom it belongs 
after me, and thus assure for ever the stability of the empire. 
As to myself, I shall add, by this renunciation, a new guaran- 
tee and a new force to the engagements which I spontaneously 
and solemnly contracted on the occasion of my divorce from 
my first wife. All the circumstances in which I find myself 
strengthen my determination to adh^^ to this resolution, 
which will prove to the empire acf^'fo the whole world the 
sincerity of my sentiments." 

Another document had also been prepared which declared 
Alexander's second brother, I^icholas, heir to the empke. 
ISTapoleon, at St. Helena, speaking of the King of Prussia and 
of Alexander, said, 

*' Frederic William, as a private character, is an honorable, 



THE EEIGN OF ALEXANDER I, 499 

good and worthy man, but in his political capacity he is natur- 
ally disposed to yield to necessity. He is always commanded 
by whoever has power on his side, and is about to strike. 

*' As to the Emperor of Russia, he is a man infinitely supe- 
rior to Frederic William or Francis. He possesses wit, grace, 
information, and is fascinating, but he is not to be trusted. He 
is devoid of candor, a true Greek of the Loioer Empire. At 
the same time he is not without ideology, real or assumed ; 
after all it may only be a smattering, derived from his educa- 
tion and his preceptor. Would you believe what I had to 
discuss with him? He maintained that inheritance was an 
abuse in monarchy, and I had to spend more than an hour, 
and employ all my eloquence and logic in proving to him that 
this right constituted the peace and happiness of the people. 
It may be too that he was mystifying, for he is cunning, false, 
adroit and hypocritical. I repeat it, he is a Greek of the Lower 
Empire. 

"If I die here he will be my real heir in Europe. I alone 
was able to stop him with his deluge of Tartars. The crisis 
is great, and will have lasting effects upon the continent of 
Europe, especially upon Constantinople. He was solicitous 
with me for the possession of it. I have had much coaxing 
upon this subject, but I constantly turned a deaf ear to it. 
The Turkish empire, shattered as it appeared, would con- 
stantly have remained a point of separation between us. It 
was the marsh which prevented my right from being turned. 

" As to Greece it is another matter. Greece awaits a 
liberator. There will be a brilliant crown of glory. He will 
inscribe his name for ever with those of Homer, Plato and 
Epaminondas. I perhaps was not far from it. When, during 
my campaign in Italy, I arrived on the shores of the Adriatic, 
I wrote to the Directory, that I had before my eyes the king- 
dom of Alexander. Still later I entered into engagements 
with Ali Pacha ; and when Corfu was taken, they must have 
found there ammunition, and a complete equipment for an 



TiOO THE ICMriKK OF RUSSIA. 

army of forty or fifty tlioiisaml men. I bad caused maps to be 
nindo of Macedonia, Servia, Albania. Greece, tbo Pelopon- 
nesus at least, nmst be tbo lot of tbe European power wbicb 
sball possess Kgypt. It sbould be ours; and tben an independ- 
<Mit kingdom in tbe nortb, Constantinople, witb its provinces, 
to serve as a barrier to tbo power of Russia, as tbey bave pre- 
tended to do witb respect to France, by creating tbe kingdom 
of IJelgium." 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

NICHOLAS. 

Feom 1826 TO 1855. 

ABDiOATioa or CowsTASTurc— AcomtKnr or TSicuoi-a*. — IirgcrKec/rrv^r QfTKt./.itb.— 
NiCHOi.A» A WD TijjE Cossj-iEATOE, — AffK^iiy/TK. — Thz Pai.ac* OF ffCTzmtorr, — 

TlIK Wl.fTEE PaI.ACB, I'fcFAEflTATIOar AT (UtXStit, — iAA(mi7Vt>K Of liCtlHtA. — 1/»- 

•CEiniow oc TMK JfK/.r.KMpf/ST Ajro Tiie l)Aiit)A!tr.u.KH. — The Tctucmti IrtVAMOrt. — 

AlM« 0» iiVIKMA. — VlKWH OF KwOJ-ASTD AJTO FfcAWC*!- W At* Of 'SlfCUOLAH. — TlIK 

PoLMH l!inciHie/,7ir,!t. — War of thk CeiMiSA. — Jkai»(;miiu> or run, Lkaoijjo Na- 
tions. — £sCE^>ACiiME.vTft.— Ij»:at« of SiciiOLAA. — A/^^iKmton or Alexasokk It. 

CIONSTANTINE was at Warsaw when the news arrived 
'' of the death of }jis brother. The mother of Alexander 
was still living. Even Nicholas either affected not to know, 
or did not know, that his wild, eccentric brother Conntanfine 
had renounced the throne in his favor, for he Inrimediately, 
upon the news of the death of Alexander, summoned the 
imperiiil guard into tlie palace chapel, and, with them, took 
the oath of allegiance to his older brother, the Grand Duke 
Constantine. On hbi return, his mother, who is represented 
as being quite frantic in her inconsolable grief* exclaimed, 

" Nicholas, what have you done ? Do you not know that 
there Is a document which names you presumptive heir ?" 

" If there be one," Nicholas replied, " I do not know it, 
neither does any one else. But this we all know, that our 
legitimate sovereign, after Alexander, is my brother Constan- 
tine. We have therefore done our duty, come what may." 

Nicholas was persistent in his res/'^Iution not to take the 
crown until he received from his brother a contirrnation of hi« 
renunciation of the throne. Tliree weeks elapsed before thi«* 
intelligence arrived. It then came full and decisive, and 



502 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

Nicholas no longer hesitated, though the interval had re- 
vealed to him that fearful dangers were impending. He 
was informed by several of his generals that a wide-spread 
conspiracy extended throughout the army in favor of a con- 
stitutional government. Many of the officers and soldiers, in 
their wars agair.st Napoleon and in their invasion of France, 
had become acquainted with those principles of popular lib- 
erty which were diffused throughout France, and which it 
was the object of the allies to crush. Upon their return to 
Russia, the utter despotism of the tzar seemed more than 
ever hateful to them. Several conspiracies had been organ- 
ized for his assassination, and now the plan was formed to 
assassinate the whole imperial family, and introduce a republic. 

Nicholas was seriously alarmed by the danger which threat- 
ened, though he was fully conscious that his only safety was 
to be found in courage and energy. He accordingly made 
preparation for the administration of the oath of allgiance to 
the army. " I shall soon," said he, " be an emperor or a 
corpse." On the morning when the oath was to be adminis- 
tered, and when it was evident that the insurrection would 
break out, he said, " If I am emperor only for an hour, I will 
show that I am worthy of it." 

The morning of the 25th of December dawned upon St. 
Petersburg in tumult. Bands of soldiers were parading the 
streets shouting, " Constantine for ever." The insurrection 
had assumed the most formidable aspect, for many who were 
not republicans, were led to believe that Nicholas was attempt- 
ing to usurp the crown which, of right, belonged to Constan- 
tine. Two generals, who had attempted to quell the move- 
ment, had already been massacred, and vast mobs, led by the 
well-armed regiments, were, from all quarters of the city, 
pressing toward the imperial palace. Nicholas, who was then 
twenty-nine years of age, met the crisis with the energy of 
Napoleon. Placing himself at the head of a small body of 
faithful guards, he rode to encounter his rebellious subjects in 



NICHOLAS. 503 

the stern strife of war. Instead of meeting a mob of unarmed 
men, he found marshaled against him the best disciplined 
troops in his army. 

A terrible conflict ensued, in which blood flowed in tor- 
rents. The emperor, heading his own troops, exposed himself, 
equally with them, to all perils. As soon as it was evident 
that he would be compelled to fire upon his subjects, he sent 
word to his wife of the cruel necessity. She was in tlie palace, 
surrounded by the most distinguished ladies of the court, 
trembUngly awaiting the issue. When the thunder of the 
artillery commenced in the streets, she threw herself upon 
her knees, and, weeping bitterly, continued in prayer until she 
was informed that the revolt w^as crushed, and that her hus- 
band was safe. The number slain is not known. That it 
might be concealed, the bodies were immediately thrust 
through holes cut in the ice of the ISTeva. 

Though the friends of liberty can not but regret that free 
principles have obtained so slender a foothold in Russia, it is 
manifest that this attempt could lead only to anarchy. The 
masses of the nobles were thoroughly corrupt, and the masses 
of the people ignorant and debased. The Russian word for 
constitution, constitutsya^ has a feminine termination. Many 
of the people, it is reported, who were shouting, " Constan- 
tino and the constitution for ever," thought that the constitu- 
tion was the wife of Constantine. It must be admitted that, 
such ignorance presents but a poor qualification for republican 
institutions. 

At the close of this bloody day, one of the leading conspir- 
ators, a general of high position in the army was led a cap- 
tive into the presence of Nicholas. The heroic republican 
met, without quailing, the proud eye of his sovereign. 

"Your father," said Nicholas sternly, "was a faithful serv- 
ant, but he has left behind him a degenerate son. For such 
an enterprise as yours large resources were requiii^ite. On what 
did you rely?" 



504 THE EMPIEE OF KUSSIA. 

"Sire," replied the prisoner, "matters of this kind can 
not be spoken of before witnesses." 

i^icholas led the conspirator into a private apartment, and 
for a long time conversed with him alone. Here the tzar had 
opened before him, in the clearest manner, the intolerable 
burdens of the people, the oppression of the nobles, the impo- 
tency of the laws, the venality of the judges, the corruption 
which pervaded all departments of the government, legisla- 
tive, executive and judiciary. The noble conspirator, whose 
mind was illumined with those views of human rights which, 
from the French Revolution, were radiating throughout Eu- 
rope, revealed all the corruptions of the State in the earnest 
and honest language of a man who was making a dying decla- 
ration. Nicholas listened to truths such as seldom reach the 
ears of a monarch ; and these truths probably produced a 
powerful impression upon him in his subsequent career. 

Many of the conspirators, in accordance with the barbaric 
code of Kussia, w^ere punished with awful severity. Some 
were whipped to death. Some were mutilated and exiled to 
Siberia, and many perished on the scaffold. Fifteen ofiicejs 
of high rank were placed together beneath the gibbet, with 
ropes around their necks. As the drop fell, the rope of one 
broke, and he fell to the ground. Bruised and half stunned 
he rose u^Don his knees, and looking sadly around exclaimed, 

" Truly nothing ever succeeds wdth me, not even death." 

Another rope was procured, and this unhappy man, whose 
words indicated an entire life of disappointment and woe, was 
launched into the world of spirits. 

We have before spoken of the palace of Peterhoff, a few 
miles from St. Petersburg, on the southern shores of the bay 
of Cronstadt. It is now the St. Cloud of Russia, the^ favorite 
rural retreat of the Russian tzars. This palace, which has 
been the slow growth of ages, consists of a pile of buildings 
of every conceivable order of architecture. It is furnished 
with all the appliances of luxury which Europe or Asia can 



NICHOLAS. 505 

produce. The pleasure grounds, in their artistic erabelllsh- 
ments, are perhaps unsurpassed by any others in the woiid. 
Fountains, groves, lawns, lakes, cascades and statues, be- 
wilder and delight the spectator. 

There is an annual fete on this ground in July, which as- 
sembles all the elite of Russian society. The spacious gardens 
are by night illuminated with almost inconceivable splendor. 
The whole forest blazes with innumerable torches, and every 
leaf, twig and drop of spray twinkles with colored lights. Here 
is that famous artificial tree which has so often been described. 
It is so constructed with root, trunk and branch, leaf and bud 
as to deceive the most practiced eye. Its shade, with an in- 
viting seat placed beneath it, lures the loiterer, through these 
Eden groves, to approach and rest. The moment he takes 
his seat he presses a spring which converts the tree into a 
shower bath, and from every twig jets of water in a cloud of 
spray, envelops the astonished stranger. 

The Winter Palace at St. Petersburg is also a, palace of 
unsurpassed splendor. More than a thousand persons habit- 
ually dwell beneath the imperial roof. Xo saloons more sump- 
tuous in architecture and adornment are probably to be found 
in the world ; neither are the exactions of court etiquette any- 
where more punctiliously observed. In entering this palace 
a massive gateway ushers one into a hall of magnificent 
dimensions, so embellished with shrubs and flowers, multiplied 
by mirrors, that the guest is deceived into the belief that he 
is sauntering through the walks of a spacious flower garden. 
A flight of marble stairs conducts to an apartment of princely 
splendor, called the hall of the Marsbals. Passing through 
this hall, one enters a suite of rooms, apparently interminable, 
all of extraordinary grandeur and sumptuousness, which are 
merely antechambers to the grand audience saloon. 

In this grand saloon the emperor holds his court. Presen- 
tation day exhibits one of the most brilliant spectacles of 
earthly splendor and luxury. When the hour of present atioo* 

22 



506 THE EMPIEE OF EUSSIA. 

arrives some massive folding doors are thrown open, revealing 
the imperial chapel thronged with those who are to take part 
in the ceremony. First, there enters from the chapel a crowd 
of army officers, often a thousand in number, in their most 
brilliant uniform, the vanguard of the escort of the tzar. 
They quietly pass through the vast apartment and disappear 
amidst the recesses of the palace. Still the almost intermin- 
able throng, glittering in gala dresses, press on. At length 
the grand master of ceremonies makes his apjDearance announc- 
ing the approach of the emperor and empress. 

The royal pair immediately enter, and bow to the repre- 
sentatives of other courts who may be present, and receive 
those who are honored with a presentation. No one is per- 
mitted to speak to their majesties but in reply to questions 
which they may ask. The Emperor Nicholas was very stately 
and reserved in his manners, and said but little. The empress, 
more affable, would present her ungloved hand to her guest, 
who would receive it and press it with fervor to his lips. 

The Emperor Nicholas, during his reign, was supposed to 
have some ninety millions of the human family subject to his 
sway. With a standing army of a million of men, two hun- 
dred thousand of whom were cavalry, he possessed power un- 
eqnaled by that of any other single kingdom on the globe. 
In the recent struggle at Sevastopol all the energies of En- 
gland, France andTuikey wore expended against Russia alone, 
and yet it was long 'doubtful whose banners would be victo- 
rious. 

It is estimated that the territory of Russia now comprises 
one seventh of the habitable globe, extending from the Baltic 
Sea across the whole breadth of Europe and of Asia to Behr- 
ing's Straits, and from the eternal ices of the north pole, almost 
down to the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. As the pre- 
vious narrative has shown, for many ages this gigantic power 
has been steadily advancing towards Constantinople. The 
Russian flat* now girdles the Euxine Sea, and notwithstanding 



NICHOLAS. 50? 

the recent check at Sevastopol, Russia is pi irssing on with re 
sistless sti ides towards the possession of the Hellespont. A 
brief sketch of the geography of those realms will give one a 
more vivid idea of the nature of that conflict, which now, 
under the title of the eastern or Turkish question, engrosses 
the attention of Europe. 

The strait which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the 
Sea of Marmora was originally called the Hellespont, from the 
fabulous legend of a young lady, named Helle, falling into it 
in attempting to escape from a cruel mother-in-law. At the 
mouth of the Hellespont there are four strong Turkish forts, 
two on the European and two on the Asiatic side. Thesfe 
forts are called the Dardanelles, and hence, from them, the 
straits frequently receive the name of the Dardanelles. This 
strait is thirty -three miles long, occasionally expanding in 
width to five miles, and again being crowded by the approach- 
ing hills into a narrow channel less than half a mile in breadth. 
Through the serpentine navigation of these straits, with for- 
tresses frowning upon every headland, one ascends to the Sea 
of Marmora, a vast inland body of water one hundred and 
eighty miles in length and sixty miles in breadth. Crossing 
this sea to the northern shoTe, you enter the beautiful straits 
of the Bosporus. Just at the point where the Bosporus enters 
the Sea of Marmora, upon the western shore of the straits, sits 
enthroned upon the hills, in peerless beauty, the imperial city 
of Constantine with its majestic domes, arrowy minarets and 
palaces of snow-white marble glittering like a fairy vision 
beneath the light of an oriental sun. 

The straits of the Bosporus, which connect the Sea of 
Marmora with the Black Sea, are but fifteen miles, long and 
of an average width of but about one fourth of a mile. Tn 
natuial scenery and artistic embellishments this is probably 
the most beautiful reach of water upon the globe. It is the 
uncontradicted testimony of all tourists that the scenery of 
the Bosporus, in its higldy-cultivated shores, its graceful 



508 THE EMPIEE OE RUSSIA. 

sweep of hills and raoimtain ranges, in its gorgeous architec- 
ture, its atmospheric brilliance and in its vast accumulations 
of the costumes and customs of all Europe and Asia, presents 
a scene which can nowhere else be paralleled. 

On the Asiatic shore, opposite Constantinople, lies Scutari, 
a beautiful city embowered in the foliage of the cyprus. An 
arm of the strait reaches around the northern portion of Con- 
stantinople, and furnishes for the city one of the finest harbors 
in the world. This bay, deep and broad, is called the Golden 
Horn. Until within a few years, no embassador of Christian 
powers was allowed to contaminate the Moslem city by taking 
up his residence in it. The little suburb of Pera, on the 
opposite side of the Golden Horn, was assigned to these 
embassadors, and the Turk, on this account, denominated it 
The swine's quarter. 

Passing through the Bosporus fifteen miles, there expands 
before you the Euxine, or Black Sea. This inland ocean, 
with but one narrow outlet, receives into its bosom the Dan- 
ube, the Dniester, the Dnieper, the Don and the Cuban. 
These streams, rolling through unmeasured leagues of Russian 
territory, open them to the commerce of the world. This 
brief sketch reveals the infinite importance of the Dardanelles 
and the Bosporus to Russia. This great empire, " leaning 
against the north pole," touches the Baltic Sea only far away 
amidst the ices of the North. St. Petersburg, during a large 
portion of the year, is blockaded by ice. Ninety millions of 
people are thus excluded from all the benefits of foreign com- 
merce for a large portion of the year unless they can open a 
gateway to distant shores through the Bosporus and the Dar- 
danelles. 

America, with thousands of miles of Atlantic coast, mani- 
fests the greatest uneasiness in having the island of Cuba in 
the hands of a foreign power, lest, in case of war, her com- 
merce in the Gulf should be embarrassed. But the Dardan- 
elles are, in reality, the only gateway for the commerce of 



NICHOLAS. 60i 

nearly all Russia. All her great navigable rivers, without 
exception, flow into the Black Sea, and thence through the 
Bosporus, the Marmora and the Hellespont, into the Med- 
iterranean. And yet Russia, with her ninety millions of 
population — three times that of the United States — can not 
send a boat load of corn into the Mediterranean without bow- 
ing her flag to all the Turkish forts which frown along her 
pathway. And in case of war with Turkey her commerce is 
entirely cut off. Russia is evidently unembarrassed with any 
very troublesome scruples of conscience in reference to 
reclaiming those beautiful realms, once the home of the 
Christian, which the Turk has so ruthlessly and bloodily 
invaded. In assailing the Turk, the Russian feels that he is 
fighting for his religion. 

The tzar indignantly inquires, " What title deed can the 
Turk show to the city of Constantine ?" None but the drip- 
ping cimeter. The annals of war can tell no sadder tale of 
woe than the rush of the barbaric Turk into Christian Greece. 
He came, a merciless robber with gory hands, plundering and 
burning. Fathers and mothers were butchered. Christian 
maidens, shrieking with terror, were dragged to the Moslem 
harems. Christian boys were compelled to adopt the Mo- 
hammedan faith, and then, crowded into the army, were 
compelled to fight the Mohammedan battles. For centuries 
the Christians, thus trampled beneath the heel of oppression, 
have suffered every conceivable indignity from their cruel 
oppressors. Earnestly have they appealed to their Christian 
brethren of Russia for protection. 

It is so essential to the advancing civilization of Russia 
that she should possess a maritime port which may give her 
access to commerce, that it is not easy for us to withhold our 
sympathies from her in her endeavor to open a gateway to 
and from her vast territories through the Dardanelles. When 
France, England and Turkey combined to batter down Sevas- 
topol and burn the Russian fleet, that Russia might still be 



510 THE EMPIRE OF EUSSIA. 

barred up in her northern wilds by Turkish forts, there 
was an instinct in the American heart which caused the sym 
pathies of this country to flow in favor of Russia, notwith- 
standing all the eloquent pleadings of the French and English 
press. 

The cabinet of St. James regards these encroachments of 
Russia with great apprehension. The view England takes of 
the subject may be seen in the following extracts from the 
Quarterly Iteview : 

" The possession of the Dardanelles would give to Russia 
the means of creatiuof and ororanizino^ an almost unlimited 
marine. It would enable her to prepare in the Black Sea an 
armament of any extent, without its being possible for any 
power in Europe to interrupt her proceedings, or even to 
watch or discover her designs. Our naval officers, of the 
highest authority, have declared that an effective blockade of 
the Dardanelles can not be maintained throughout the year. 
Even supposing we could maintain permanently in those seas 
a fleet capable of encouuteiing that of Russia, it is obvious 
that, in the event of a war, it would be in the power of Russia 
to throw the whole weight of her disposable forces on any 
point in the Mediterranean, without any probability of our 
being able to prevent it, and that the power of thus issuing 
forth with an overwhelming force, at any moment, would, 
enable her to command the Mediteranean Sea for a limited 
time whenever it might please her so to do. Her whole 
southern empire would be defended by a single impregnable 
fortress. The road to India would then be open to her, witb 
all Asia at her ''♦ack. The finest materials in the world for an 
array destined to serve in the East would be at her disposal. 
Our power to overawe her in Europe would be gone, and by 
even a demonstration against India she could augment our 
national expenditure by many millions annually, and render 
the government of that country difiicult beyond all calculation." 

Such is the view which England takes of this subject. The 



NICHOLAS. 511 

Statesmen of England and France contemplate with alarm the 
rapid growth of Russia, and yet know not how to arrest its 
progress. They see the Russian tzars, year after year, annex- 
ing new nations to their territory, and about all they can do 
is to remonstrate. All agree that the only effectual measure 
to check the growth of Russia is to prevent her from taking 
possession of the Dardanelles. To accomplish this, England 
and France are endeavoring^ to bind too-ether the crumblino: 
and discordant elements of Ottoman power, to infuse the vigor 
of youth into the veins of an old man dying of debauchery 
and age. But the crescent is inevitably on the wane. The 
doom of the Moslem is sealed. 

There are four great nations now advancing with marvel- 
ous strides in the appropriation of this globe to themselves. 
Russia has already taken possession of one seventh of the 
world's territory, and she needs now but to annex Turkey in 
Europe and Turkey in Asia to complete her share. France is 
spreading her influence throughout southern Europe, and, 
with a firm grasp, is seizing the provinces of northern Africa. 
England claims half of the islands of the ocean, boasts that the 
sun never sets upon her dominions, and has professed that the 
ocean is her private property. Her armies, invincible, sweep 
the remotest plains of Asia, removing and setting down land- 
marks^at her pleasure. Her advances are so gigantic that the 
annexation of a few thousand leagues, at any time, hardly 
attracts attention. America is looking with a wistful eye 
upon the whole of North and South America, the islands of 
the Caribbean Sea and the groups of the Pacific* 

* The jealousy of the leading nations in regard to their mutual encroach- 
ments is amusingly illustrated in an interview between Senator Douglas ajd 
Sir Henry Bulwer in reference to the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. An article 
was inserted in this treaty by the English government, binding both England 
and America not to colonize, annex or exercise any dominion over any portion 
of Central America. Sir Henry argiaed that the pledge was fair and just 
since it was reciprocal, England asking no more than she was ready herself to 
grant. 

"To test your principle," said Senator Douglas, "I would propose ar 



512 THE EMPIEE OF K U S S I A , 

Immediately after the accession of Nicholas to the throne, 
war broke out with Persia. It was of short duration. The 
Persian monarch, utterly discomtited, was compelled to cede 
to Russia large provinces in the Caucasus, and extensive terri- 
tory on the south-western shore of the Caspian, and to pay all 
the expenses of the wai\ Immediately after this, on the Vth 
of May, 1828, war was declared against Turkey. The Russian 
army, one hundred and sixty thousand strong, flushed with 
victory, crossed the Pruth and took possession of the entire 
left bank of the Danube, for some hundreds of miles from its 
mouth, with all its fertile fields and populous cities. They then 
crossed the river, and overran the whole region of Bulgaria. 
The storms of winter, however, compelled a retreat, which 
the Russians efiected after most terrific conflicts, and, re- 
crossing the Danube, they established themselves in winter 
quarters on its left banks, having lost in the campaign one 
half of their number. The Turks took possession of the right 
bank, and remained, during the winter, in face of their foes. 
In the spring of 1829 the Russians, having obtained a rein- 
forcement of seventy thousand men, opened the campaign 
anew upon the land, while a fleet of forty-two vessels, carry- 
ing fifteen hundred guns, cooperated on the Black Sea. 

Through fields of blood, where the Turks, with the ener- 
gies of despair, contested every step, the victorious Russians 
advanced nearly three hundred miles. They entered the 
defiles of the Balkan mountains, and forced the passage. 
Concentrating their strength at the base of the southern 

amendment of simply two words. Let the article read, ' Neither England nor 
the United States wiU ever colonize any part of Central America or Asia.^ " 

The British minister exclaimed, in surprise, " But you have no coloniea 
in Asia." 

" True," replied the United States Senator, " neither have you any colonies 
in Central America." 

"But," rejoined Sir Henry, "you can never establish your government 
there, in Asia." 

" No," Mr. Douglas replied, " neither do we intend that you shall plant 
your government here, in Central America." 



NICHOLAS. 513 

declivities, the path was open before them to Constantinople. 
Pushing ra^^idly forward, they entered Adrianople in triumph. 
They were now within one hundred and fifty miles of Con- 
stantinople. The consternation in the Turkish capital was 
indescribable, and all Europe was looking for the issue with 
wonder. The advance guard of the Russian army v.as already 
within eighty miles of the imperial city when the sultan, Mah- 
moud lY., implored peace, and assented to the terms his 
victor extorted. 

By this treaty, called the treaty of Adrianople, Turkey 
paid Russia twenty-nine millions of dollars to defray the 
expenses of the war, opened the Dardanelles to the fvee navi- 
gation of all Russian merchant ships, and engaged not to 
maintain any fortified posts on the north of the Danube. 

In July, 1830, the Poles rose in a general insurrection, 
endeavoring to shake off the Russian yoke. With hurricane 
fury the armies of Nicholas swept tlie ill-fated territory, and 
Poland fell to rise no more. The vengeance of the tzar was 
awful. For some time the roads to Siberia were thronged 
with noble men driven into exile. 

In the year 1833, Constantinople was imperiled by the 
armies of Mohammed AH, the energetic pacha of Egypt. The 
sultan implored aid of Russia. Nicholas sent an army and a 
fleet, and drove Mohammed Ali back to Egypt. As compen- 
sation for this essential aid, the sultan entered into a treaty, 
by which both powers were bound to afford succor in case 
either was attacked, and Turkey also agreed to close the 
Dardanelles against any power with whom Russia might be at 
war. 

The revolution in Paris of 1848, which expelled Louis 
Philippe from the throne, excited the hopes of the republican 
party all over Europe. The Hungarians rose, under Kossuth, 
in the endeavor to shake off the Austrian yoke. Francis 
Joseph appealed to Russia for aid. Nicholas dispatched two 
hundred thousand men to crush the Hungarians, and they 

22* 



514 THE EMPIEE 5* EUSSIA. 

were crushed. Nicholas asked no remuneration for these 
services. He felt amply repaid in having arrested the prog- 
ress of constitutional liberty in Europe. 

Various circumstances, each one trivial in itself, conspired 
to lead Nicholas in 1853 to make a new and menacing demon- 
stration of power in the direction of Constantinople, An 
army was marshaled on the frontiers, and a large fleet assem- 
bled at Odessa and Sevastopol. England and France were 
alarmed, and a French fleet of observation entered the waters 
of Greece, while the English fleet at Malta strengthened 
itself for any emergence. The prominent question professedly 
at issue between Russia and Turkey was the protection which 
should be extended to members of the Greek church residing 
within the Turkish domains. The sultan, strengthened by 
the secret support of France and England, refused to accede 
to the terms which Russia demanded, and the armies of 
Nicholas were put on the march for Constantinople. England 
and France dispatched their fleets for the protection of Tur- 
key. In the campaign of Sevastopol, Russia received a 
check which will, for a few years, retard her advances. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE CRIMEAN WAR. 

Feom 1844 TO 1856. 

Causes op the Crimean War. — Schemes of Xicholas. — Embarrass- 
ments of thl; Sultan. — Loss of the Turkish Fleet. — Declaration 
OF War. — Storming of the Malakoff. — Treaty of Peace. 

THE most important event in the modern history of Russia 
is the Crimean War. We have ah-eady alluded to the 
desire of this power to obtain possession of Constantinople, 
and to the infinite importance of that southern port for the 
promotion of the commercial and diplomatic greatness of 
that empire. The Emperor Napoleon I., at St. Helena, 
speaking on this subject to Dr. O'Mearn, said in 1817, the Em- 
peror Alexander I. being then upon the throne of Russia, — 

" All the thoughts of the Emperor Alexander are directed 
to the conquest of Turkey. We have had many discussions 
about it. At first I was pleased with his proposals, because 
I thought it would enlighten the world to drive those brutes, 
the Turks, out of Europe : but when I reflected upon the 
consequences, and saw what a tremendous weight of power 
it would give to Russia, on account of the number of Greeks 
in the Turkish dominions who would naturally join the Rus- 
sians, I refused to consent to it, — especially as he wanted to 
get Constantinople, which I would not allow ; for it would 
destroy the equilibrium of power in Europe." 

A few days after this conversation, the emperor remarked, 
"In the course of a few years, Russia will have Constantino- 
ple, the greatest part of Turkey, and all Greece: this I hold 
to be as certain as if it had already taken place. Almost all 



516 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the cajoling and flattery which Alexander practiced towards 
me was to gain my consent to effect this object. In the nat- 
ural course of things, in a few years Turkey must fall to Rus- 
sia. The powers it would injure, and who would oppose it, 
are England, France, Prussia, and Austria. Now, as to Aus- 
tria, it will be very easy for Russia to engage her assistance 
by giving her Servia and other provinces bordering upon the 
Austrian dominions. The only hy2)othesis that France and 
England may ever be allied with sincerity will be in order 
to prevent this. But even this alliance would not avail. 
France, England, and Prussia, united, cannot j)revent it. 
Russia and Austria can at any time effect it. 

" Once mistress of Constantinople, Russia gets all the com- 
merce of the Mediterranean, becomes a great naval power, 
marches off to India an army of seventy thousand good sol- 
diers ; and God knows what may happen. All this I fore- 
saw. I see into futurity farther than others; and I wanted 
to establish a barrier by re-establishing the kingdom of Po- 
land, and putting Poniatowski at the head of it as king. 
But your imheciles of ministers would not consent. A hun- 
dred years hence, I shall be praised ; and Europe, especially 
England, will lament that I did not succeed." 

The Tzar Nicholas is reported to have said, " I do not 
desire Constantinople : my empire is already too large. But 
I know that I or my successors must have it. You might 
as well arrest a stream in its descent from a mountain, as 
the Russians in their advance to the Hellespont." * 

It is, however, evident that Nicholas did desire Constan- 
tinople, notwithstanding this his denial of the fact. In the 
year 1844, the Tzar, in all the splendor of an Oriental mon- 
arch, visited the court of Queen Victoria. According to the 
statement of Count Nesselrode, his minister, his object was to 
propose to England and to Austria to unite with him in driv- 
ing the Turks out of Europe. They were then to divide the 
magnificent inheritance between them. 

* Schnitzler, ii. 247. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 517 

It was indeed princely booty which would thus fall into 
the possession of the allied powers. Turkey in Europe, in 
extent of territory, was twice as large as the Island of Great 
Britain. It contained a population of fourteen millions : of 
these, three millions were Mohammedans; the remainder were 
nominal Christians. Nicholas proposed that Russia should 
annex to her domain the three splendid provinces of Molda- 
via, Wallachia, and Bulgaria : this would give her the entire 
control of the Danube and its majestic valley, from the source 
of the river to its entrance to the Black Sea. The Greeks in 
Roumelia were to be organized into a government under the 
protectorate of Russia, with Constantinople for its capital. 
This was merely an adroit way of surrendering Constantino- 
ple to Russia. 

Austria was to receive as her share of the booty the fertile 
and beautiful States of Servia and Bothnia. These territo- 
ries adjoined her possessions on the south of the Danube, and 
were quite renowned for their fertility, and loveliness of cli- 
mate. Austria was also to be permitted to extend her south- 
ern frontier so as to embrace nearly the whole eastern coast 
of the Adriatic Sea. Austria, thus in possession of several 
im2:>ortant seaports, might become a great commercial power. 

England, as her share of the spoils, was to take possession 
of the Island of Cyprus. This gem of the Eastern Mediterr^ 
nean is almost unrivaled by any other island upon the globe 
in picturesque beauty of landscape, fertility of soil, and deli- 
ciousness of climate. It is a hundred and forty-six miles 
long, and sixty-three broad. In addition to this truly splen- 
did possession, England was also to have the whole of Egypt. 
Thus, with Cyprus for a naval depot, and in command of the 
canal about to be constructed connectinsc the Mediterranean 
with the Red Sea, the British empire in the East would seem 
to be quite impregnable. 

France was at that time under the dominion of Louis 
Philippe. The proud kingdom, once the arbiter of the desti- 
nies of Europe, had sunk so low in European consideration 



518 THE EIPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

under the sway of the Orleans prince, that it was not deemed 
necessary even to approach her on these all-important ques- 
tions. Never was there a more ambitious project presented 
to earthly courts than Russia thus offered to England and 
Austria. Neither of these powers had any scruples of con- 
science to dissuade them from wresting from the barbarian 
Turk the possessions which he had obtained simply through 
the energies of his blood-stained sword. Why, then, did 
England and Austria hesitate ? The avowed and real i*ea- 
son was, because the arrangement would make Russia so 
vast in territory, population, and in all the elements of naval 
and military power, as to give her the decided supremacy 
over all the other nations of Europe. 

A very large proportion of the population of Turkey are 
members of the Greek Church : their number is estimated 
at fifteen millions. Though the Greek patriarch at Constan- 
tinople is nominally the head of this communion, the Em- 
peror of Russia is in reality its pope. These Christians have 
been fearfully oppressed by the Mohammedans. They all 
look to Russia for protection ; and^ should Russia take mili- 
tary possession of Turkey, they would probably, to a man, 
rally around the banners of the Tzar. Notwithstanding the 
remonstrances of that diplomacy, which sought to add 
strength to Moslem fanaticism to prevent the extension of 
the power of Christian Russia, the sympathies of Christendom, 
outside of the interested courts, are generally with Russia. 

In this state of things we see the real cause of the late 
Crimean War, which literally almost clothed Europe in 
mourning. It is estimated that a million of men perished in 
that terrible conflict. The immediate occasion of the war 
was as follows : — 
>j For many years, the members of the Roman-Catholic 
Church and of the Greek Church in Syria had contended for 
the possession of the holy places. The Greeks, being the 
most numerous, and aided by the powerful support of the 
Tzar, gradually obtained exclusive possession of nine of 



THE CKIMEAX WAR. 519 

the most important shrines. But, in 1740, a treaty was con- 
cluded between France and the Ottoman Porte, by which 
the Catholics were guaranteed many privileges which the 
Greeks had thus wrested from them. Under these circum- 
stances, the fathers of the Latin Church appealed earnestly to 
France to enforce fulfillment of the treaty of 1740. The 
French government, then under the presidency of Louis Xa- 
poleon, respectfully reminded the Sultan of the treaty, and 
solicited the restitution of those sanctuaries which had been 
wrested from the Latins. The Porte, fearing to offend Rus- 
sia, then under the sway of the imperious Nicholas, after 
much delay returned an evasive answer. France, earnestly 
disposed to avoid any conflict, suggested that the question 
should be submitted to a commission equally composed of 
French and Turks, and thus be determined by a friendly 
conference. The Sultan acceded to this manifestly fair 
proposal; but Nicholas interposed, and, by a menacing letter 
to the Porte, compelled the dissolution of the commission 
after it had held several sessions. TVe can only guess at the 
motives which influenced Nicholas to pursue such a course ; 
but it is universally supposed that he was very willing to 
pick a quarrel, that he might move with his armies upon Con- 
stantinople. 

France, still anxious for peace, having nothing to gain 
by war, and sure that no impartial mind could have any 
doubt of the rectitude of its claims, then made the very con- 
ciliatory proposition, that the question should be submitted 
to a commission composed exclusively of Turks. The com- 
mission met, and promptly decided that the Latin Church was 
entitled to the privileges it demanded. The Sultan, accord- 
ingly, issued a proclamation restoring to them the rights 
which had been wrested from them by the Greeks. 

Again Nicholas interposed, and with such menace as to 
compel the Sultan to issue another firman, revoking the con- 
cessions to which the commission had declared the Latin 
Church were entitled; and in direct and palpable violation of 



^20 THE EMPIBE OE RUSSIA. 

the treaty with France, ratifying the encroachments of thv\ 
Grepkii This was a national insult, to which France could 
not submit Vr ithout dishonor. Still the French government, 
anxious for peace, and conscious that the Sultan was con- 
strained to his unjust action by the t^^reats of a resistless foe, 
adopted a conciliatory policy, and made no appeal to arms. 

The Sultan, regarding the question merely as a conflict 
between two opposing sects of Christians, both of whom he 
despised, probably cared but little, so far as he was personally 
concerned, how the dispute was settled. But he feared to 
offend Russia ; and, on the other hand, France, under the 
calm but decisive reign of Napoleon III., could not be in- 
sulted with impunity. The afiliir was beginning to assume 
political importance, and arrested the attention of the cabinet 
of St. James. 

Should Eussia succeed in provoking a war with the Sul- 
tan, Turkey, unaided, could make no effectual resistance to 
the fleets and armies of her powerful foe : the banners of the 
conqueror would inevitably soon float over the dome of St. 
Sophia. Should France come to the rescue of the Sultan, 
and thus enable him to repel the threatened invasion, French 
influence Avould dominate in the Levant. This might prove 
to England a great calamity. 

The English cabinet, therefore, made the ingenious and 
obviously wise suggestion, that France should liberate the 
Turkish government from its embarrassing responsibility in a 
question concerning which it had very little personal inter- 
est, and open direct communication with Russia. France 
unhesitatingly accepted the friendly suggestion. But, in the 
mean time, Russia had sent an army corps into the Turkish 
provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, and demanded the 
right to protect by military power the Christians wlio com- 
posed the greater part of the population of those principali- 
ties. This act of invasion, without any proclamation of war, 
was a gross outrage. It terminated the merely religious 
question, and introduced political questions of the most mo- 



THE CEIMEAN WAR. 621 

mentous importance. Siraultac.eously with this invasion, 
Nicholas sent Prince Menchikof, one of the most hanghty 
of his nobles, to Constantinople, to demand that all the Greek 
Christians in the Turkish empire, numbering about fifteen 
millions, should be placed under the protection of the Tzar. 
This was demanding that the Sultan should share his throne 
with Nicholas. Menchikof, conveying this extraordinary 
demand, went to Constantinople with the pomp of a mon- 
v.:cb. accompanied by a brilliant retinue, and supported by a 
powerful fleet. 

Both England and France now deemed it essential to their 
interests to come to the rescue of the Porte. Sustained by 
^ese two powers, the Sultan ventured to reject the propo- 
lis of Nicholas. Menchikof demanded his passporLo, %nd 
withdrew. This^was in the latter part of May, 1853. 

The original question with regard to the holy places had 
entirely disappeared. The withdrawal of Menchikof was 
considered a sure prelude to a declaration of war. There 
was not. a cabinet in Europe which did not condemn the 
course pursued by Russia. It was manifest to all that 
Nicholas was seeking an opportunity to make encroachments 
upon the territory of the Sultan. 

Austria and Prussia now associated themselves in diplo- 
matic sympathy with France and England. Many proposi- 
tions were made on each side, and rejected. We have no 
space here to enter into the mazes of diplomatic action, which 
continued through several months. Nicholas stood alone. 
He still held military possession of the Turkish principalities. 
This hostile act was not merely a declaration of war: it was 
war itself At length, Turkey, acting under the advice of 
the other four powers, issued a declaration, that, unless the 
Russian troops were withdrawn from the principalities 
within fifteen days, war would be understood as declared. 
The troops were not withdrawn : consequently, on the 23d 
of October, 1853, Russia and Turkey were in an avowed 
state of war. The English and French fleet ascended the 
Dardanelles to Constantinople for the protection of that city. 



522 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

As yet, not a gun had been fired ; for the Russian army had 
entered the principalities in such force, that no resistance was 
attempted. All Christendom was looking anxiously on to 
see what would be the next move. The Russian fleet was at 
Sevastopol, on the northern shores of the Euxine Sea. On 
the southern shore, at the distance of nearly three hundred 
miles, the Turkish fleet lay at anchor in the Bay of Sinope. 
On the 30th of November, the Russian fleet, consisting of six 
large ships-of-the-line, entered the bay to destroy this fleet. 
The Turks opened fire. The battle was brief, but decisive. 
The Turkish fleet, overpowered, was speedily either blown 
into the air, or sunk beneath the waves of the bay. Four 
thousand of their crew perished : but four hundred escaped; 
and nearly every one of these was wounded. 

That the Turkish fleet should have been thus annihilated, 
almost within hearing of the combined fleets of the allies, 
caused intense chagrin throughout England and France. 
The ships of France and England immediately passed into 
the Black Sea to prevent further ravages by the Russians. 
The four powers — England, France, Prussia, Austria — had 
done every thing in their power to avert the war ; and even 
now the Emperor of France was so anxious to avert those 
woes which the conflict would inevitably cause, that he wrote 
to the Emperor Nicholas, with his own hand, a letter breath- 
ing the noblest spirit of humanity and conciliation. In this 
letter, which is dated "Palace of the Tuileries, Jan. 29, 
1854," he wrote,— 

" Your Majesty has given so many proofs of your solicitude 
for the repose of Europe, you have contributed so power- 
fully by your beneficent influence against the spirit of disor- 
der, that I can not doubt of your decision in the alternative 
which presents itself to your choice. Kyour Majesty desires 
as much as I do a pacific conclusion, what can be more sim- 
ple than to declare that an armistice will be immediately 
signed ; that affairs will resume their diplomatic course ; that 
all hostility will cease ; and that all the belligerent forces 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 523 

will retire from the places which they have occu/Ui through 
motives of war ? 

"Thus the Russian troops will abandon the principalities, 
and our squadrons will leave the Black Sea. Your Majesty, 
preferring to treat directly with Turkey, will name an ambas- 
sador wlio will negotiate with the plenipotentiary of the 
Sultan, — an agreemer'^ which will be submitted to a con- 
ference of the four powers. Let your Majesty adopt this 
plan, upon which the Queen of England is in perfect accord 
with me, and tranquillity is re-established, and everybody is 
satisfied. There is truly nothing in this plan which is not 
worthy of your Majesty ; nothing which can wound your 
honor. But if, through a motive difficult to comprehend, 
your Majesty opposes a refusal, then France, and also Eng- 
land, will be obhged to submit to the fortune of arms and to 
the hazards of war that which could be now decided by rea- 
son and justice. Let not your Majesty think that the least 
animosity enters into my heart: it experiences no other sen- 
timents than those expressed by your Majesty yourself in 
your letter of the 17th of January, 1853, when you wrote to 
me ^ Our relations ought to be sincerely friendly, to repose 
upon the same intentions, — the maintenance of order, the 
love of peace, respect for treaties, and reciprocal good will.' 
This programme is worthy of the sovereign who traced it ; 
and I do not hesitate to affirm that I shall remain faithful 
to it. I pray your Majesty to believe in the sincerity of my 
regard. And it is with these sentiments that I am, sire, of 
your majesty the good friend, " Napoleon." 

To this appeal Nicholas turned a deaf ear. Angrily he 
withdrew his ambassadors from Paris and London. France 
and England followed his example, and withdrew their min- 
isters from St. Petersburg. Still the allies, anxious to avoid 
a war, exhausted the energies of diplomacy in the endeavor 
to devise some acceptable proposition to secure J^ace. All 
was in vain. 



524 THE EMPIJIE OF RUSSIA. 

At length, France and England informed Russia, that un- 
leys, within six days after receiving tti3 summons, the Tzai 
should send an "answer, engaging to withdraw his troops from 
the principaliiies before the 30th of April, the refusal would 
be regarded as a declaration of war. The Tzar paid no heed 
to this summons. Consequently, on the l^Tth of March, the 
Emperor Napoleon announced to the senate and legislative 
corps of France, that, by the decision of the cabinet of St. 
Petersburg, France and Russia were in a state of war. 
Queen Victoria, on the same day, made a similar announce- 
ment to the British parliament. 

The terrible campaign of the Crimea ensued, — a campaign 
in which were developed perhaps more of heroisci and of suf- 
fering than in any other which has occurred in modern times. 
The details of this awful campaign cf blood and misery would 
fill volumes. The lor^g and dreary tragedy was terminated 
by the successful storming of the Malakoff in the early part 
of September, 1855. Russia had summoned her mightiest 
energies for this dread conflict;^ The unified armies of Eng- 
land, France, Sardinia, and Turkey, were tasked to the ut- 
most in the struggle with the colossal power of the North. 
The Malakoff w^as the most important fort of Russia. All 
the resources of modern military art had been expended in 
the attempt to render it impregnable. 

On the night of the 3d of September, the allies held a 
council of war. Its capture would givB them command of 
•»he city and the harbor of Sevastopol. Through months of 
ncessant battle, their engineers had been approaching the 
w^orks by parallels ; and they were now within thirty yards 
jf the counterscarp. 

" It was unanimously voted to make the attack. The 8th 
jf September was fixed upon as the decisive day. Indeed, 
he attack was in reality to commence on the 5th ; for then, 
^11 along the extended lines, the fire from every battery was 
vO be opened with the greatest vigor. This was to be con- 
tiuued by day and by night until the 8th, that the ene 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. E^5 

my's works might be shattered, his strength exhausted, rind 
that his attention might be so distracted, that he could net 
judge at what hour, or upon what point, the final assault 
would be made. 

" Even the attempt to describe the terrible picture of hero- 
ism and of death which was then unrolled causes the heart 
to beat quickly with emotion. The last hours of Sevastopol 
were sounded. How sublime was its death ! On both sides 
the most heroic courage was displayed. Both armies, in fer- 
vent prayer, implored divine assistance ; and then, hour after 
hour, these children of a common Father, animated by no in- 
dividual hostility, strewed the sod with their slain. Alas 
for man ! 

" At the earliest dawn of the 5th the awful drama was 
opened. Every battery of the allies commenced its fire : 
every gun of the Kussians responded. Such a tempest of 
war never burst upon this world before, and probably never 
will again. The military resources of five nations were ex- 
erted to the utmost upon a spot but a few leagues in cir- 
cuit. The war-cloud speedily enveloped the whole field of 
conflict, pierced by incessant lightning-flashes, accompanied 
by an interminable thunder-roar. The arena presented the 
aspect of a vast volcano in violent eruption. Night and 
day, the bombardment was continued. At midnight of the 
5th, the whole scene was illumined by the flames of a Rus- 
sian frigate in the harbor, which had been set on fire by an 
exploding shell. 

"Early on the morning of the 8th, Gen. Bosquet, who 
was in command of the French forces in front of the Mala- 
kofij issued to the troops the following order : — 

"'To-day you are to give the finishing stroke, the final 
blow, with that strong hand so well known to the enemy, in 
wresting from his line of defence the Malakoff"; while our 
comrades of the English army and of the first corps com- 
mence the assault of the Grand Redan and of the central bas- 
tioD, It is a general assault, army against army. It is an 



026 THE EM PIKE OF KUSSIA. 

immense and memorable victory which is to crown the young 
eagles cf France. Forward, my children! For us Malakoff 
and Sevastopol ! T^ive VJEmpereur ! ' 

" The troops defiled in silence along their trenches, taking 
the utmost precautions to veil their movements from the ene- 
my. Still the operation could not be entirely concealed. 
Prince Gortehakoff, from the heiglits of Inkerman, sent 
word to the officers in command at the Malakoff, tliat move- 
ments were in progress in the trenches of the French which 
indicated an attack. All the watches of the French generals 
commanding divisions were set by that of the general-in- 
chief. Precisely at mid-day, each officer exclaimed to his di- 
vision, impatiently waiting the signal, ' Soldiers, 'forward ! 
Vive VEmpereur ! ' 

*' The French battle-cry of ' Vive I ''Empereur! ' burst again 
and again, Avith almost frenzied enthusiasm, from thousands 
of lips. Soldiere and officers were blended in the sudden, 
impetuous rush. General McMahon's division was within 
thirty yards of the Malakoff. A part of his troops aimed for 
the salient of the redoubt; othei*s struck for the left face of 
the bastion ; another division was launched against the 
grand curtain which connected the bastion with the Little 
Redan ; and still another was thrown upon the Little Redan 
itself. 

'•The firet rush, so sudden, impetuous, unexpected, — the 
assailants emerging from almost midnight obscurity of dust 
and smoke, while the thuudei-^ of battle shook the hills, — 
was a perfect success. Speedily, however, the Russians re- 
covered from the shock ; and then ensued for six long 
houi-s as fierce and bloody a strife as man can wacre with 
man. 

" Night came. The battle was ended. The banners of 
France floated proudly over the 31alakoff. Sevastopol could 
no lonijer be held bv the Russians. A stransre silence ensued. 
The wind died away, and darkness settled down over the ex- 
hausted armies. Suddenly the heavens glowed for a mo- 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 527 

tiient, as if from the most vivid lightning's flash. A fearful 
explosion ensued, and another, and another, and another. 
Flames burst forth in all directions. The Russians were 
blowing up their forts and magazines, and setting fire to 
every thing that would burn. It was a fearful night. 
ThrouGjli all the hours the work of destruction continued. 
The dying and the dead lay in heaps together. Both partie? 
were fearful of surprise, and in vigilant watch occupied their 
posts wit'i swords drawn and bayonets fixed. The allies in 
the darkness could not pursue the Russians ; for everywhere 
ramparts frowned before them, and the whole expanse seemed 
but a series of mines to blow them into the air. 

"The light of the morning revealed a melancholy specta- 
cle of devastation and misery. Nothing remained of Sevas- 
topol but a smoldering pile of ruins. The Russian columns 
had crossed the bay on the bridge and by steamboats, and 
could be seen in the distance, winding over the hills. A few 
steamers were still plying in the harbor; but, of the majestic 
Russian fleet, nothing was visible but the tops of its masts, 
disappearing far away over the rotundity of the sea. Sevas- 
topol was abandoned." * 

The capture of Sevastopol put the allies in possession of 
the Crimea, and gave them command of the Black Sea. 
Russia could no longer continue the conflict. Arrangements 
were soon made for a convention to be held in Paris to de- 
liberate upon terms of peace. France, Great Britain, Sar- 
dinia, Turkey, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were represented 
in this important convention. On the 30th of March, 1856, 
the articles of peace were signed. 

By the treaty of peace entered into between the allies and 
Russia, the Tzar was compelled to assent to the neutraliza- 
tion of the Black Sea. This was the only path by which the 
Russian fleet could approach Constantinople. The Russian 
forts and arsenals on the shores of the Black Sea were also all 
to be destroyed. This must have been a great humiliation to 

♦ Abbott's Life of Napoleon III., pp. 561, 562 



528 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

the vanquished empire. The Danubian principalities wett> 
also to be so organized as to present a barrier to the farther 
encroachments of Russia by land. In addition to these terms, 
the Tzar renounced all pretension to interfere in the in- 
ternal administration of Turkey. The navigation of the 
Danube was declared to be free to all nations, and the Sultan 
engaged to grant additional immunities and privileges to all 
Christians, whether of the Greek or Latin Church. 

. It is generally admitted that the influence of France was 
predominant throughout this important campaign. The Em- 
peror Napoleon, with much military intelligence, selected the 
Crimea as the point of attack. The two great naval powers 
could easily convey troops, and munitions of war, to thfs spot 
by water; while the Tzar would be compelled to transport 
them by land — a distance of more than a thousand miles — 
from St. Petersburg or Moscow. The region to be traversed 
was wild, inhospitable, sparsely inhabited, with no railroad, 
and where the common roads were, at times, almost impassa- 
ble. 

It is also generally admitted that the French, during the 
siege, struck by far the heavier blows. The capture of the 
Malakoff, which terminated the campaign, was mainly attrib- 
utable to the French troops. This fact, however, reflects no 
dishonor upon the English troops ; for the history of centu- 
ries has proved that no braver troops can be found on earth. 
The co-operation of the British government was cordial, sin- 
cere, and magnanimous, from the commencement of the cam- 
paign to its successful close. 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

DEATH OF NICHOLAS, AND ACCESSION OE ALEX- 
ANDER II. 

Sickness of Nicholas, — Death-bed Scene.— Grief of the Empress.— 

Alexander II. — His Character. — His Marriage, and Domestic 

Habits. — Emancipation of the Serfs. 
/ 

DUEING the progress of the campaign of Sevastopol, the 
Emperor Nicholas, in February, 1855, was suddenly seized 
with the influenza. The disease made rapid progress. He 
could not sleep at night, and an incessant cough racked his 
frame. On the 22d, notwithstanding the intense severity of 
the weather, he insisted upon reviewing some troops who 
were about to set out for the seat of war. 

" Sire," said one of his physicians, " there is not a surgeon 
in the army who would permit a common soldier to leave the 
hospital in the state in which you are, for he would be sure 
that his patient would reenter it still worse." 

"'Tis well, gentlemen," said the emperor, " you have done 
your duty, and I shall do mine." 

Then wrapping his cloak about him, he entered his 
sledge. It was a bleak winter's day. Pale, languid and 
coughing incessantly, he rode along the lines of his troops. He 
returned in a profuse perspiration, and was soon seized with 
a relapse, which was aggravated by the disastrous tidings he 
was receiving from Sevastopol. He rapidly failed, and the 
empress, anxious as to the result, suggested that he should 
receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

"No!" the emperor replied. "I can not approach, so 
23 



530 THE EMPlllE OF KUSSIA. 

solemn a mystery undressed and in bed. It will be better 
when I can do it in a suitable manner." 

The empress, endeavoring to conceal her tears, commenced 
the repetition of the Lord's prayer, in a low tone of voice. Aa 
she uttered the words *' Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven," he fervently added, " For ever, for ever, for ever." 
Observing that his wife was in tears he inquired, " Why do 
you weep ? Am I in danger ?" She, afraid to utter the truth, 
said, "No." He added, " You are greatly agitated and fa- 
tigued. You must retire and take some rest." 

A few hours after three o'clock in the morning, Dr. Mandt 
entered. *' Tell me candidly," said the emperor, '' what my 
disease is. You know I have always forewarned you to in- 
form me in time if I fell seriously ill, in order that I might not 
neglect the duties of a Christian." 

" I can not conceal from your majesty," the physician re- 
plied, " that the disease is becoming serious. The right lung 
is attacked." 

" Do you mean to say that it is threatened with paralysis ?" 
enquired the emperor. The doctor replied, " If the disease 
do not yield to our efforts, such may indeed be the result ; 
but we do not yet observe it, and we still have some hope of 
seeing you restored." 

" Ah," said the emperor, " I now comprehend my state and 
know what I have to do." Dismissing his physician he sum- 
moned his eldest son, Alexander, who Was to succeed him 
upon the throne ; calmly informed him that he deemed his 
condition hopeless and that the hour of death was approach^ 
ing. "Say nothing," he continued, "to your mother which 
may alarm her fears ; but send immediately for my confessor." 

The archpriest Bajanof soon entered, and commenced the 
prayers which precede confession. The prayers being finished, 
the emperor crossed himself and said, " Lord Jesus, receive 
me into thy bosom." He then partook of the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper with the empress and his son Alexander. 



DEATH OF NICHOLAS. 531 

The remaining members of the imperial family were then sum- 
moned into the chamber. He announced with firmness his 
approaching end, and gave to each his particular blessing. 
The empress, overwhelmed with anguish, cried out, "Oh, God ! 
can I not die with him ?" 

" You must live for our children," said the emperor ; and 
then turning to his son Alexander, he added, " You know 
that all my anxiety, all my efforts had for their object the 
good of Russia. My desire was to labor until I could leave 
you the empire thoroughly organized, protected from all 
danger from without, and completely tranquil and happy. 
But you see at what a time and under what circumstances I 
die. Such, however, seems to be the will of God. Your bur- 
den will be heavy." 

Alexander, weeping, replied, "If I am destined to lose 
you, I have the certainty that in heaven you will p'ay to God 
for Russia and for us all. And you will ask His aid that I 
may be able to sustain the burden which He will have im- 
posed upon me." 

" Yes," the emperor replied, " I have always prayed for 
Russia and for you all. There also will I pray for you." 
Then speaking to the whole assembled group, he added, " Re- 
main always, as hitherto, closely united in family love." 

Several of the important officers of the State were then 
introduced. The emperor thanked them for their faithful 
services and tried devotion, and recommended them to his 
son as worthy of all trust, gave them his benediction and bade 
tnem farewell. At his request his domestic servants were 
tnen brought into the room. To one, who was especially 
aevoted to the empress, he said, 

"I fear that I have not sufficiently thanked you for the 
care which you took of the empress when she was last ill. Be 
to her for the future what you have been in my Ujte-time, and 
fealute my beautiful Peterhoff, the first tinj.Q^. you go there 
with her." 



532 THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA. 

These interviews being closed, he addressed his son and 
Count d'Adelberg respecting his obsequies. He selected the 
room in which his remains were to be laid out, and the spot 
for his tomb in the cathedral of the Apostles Peter and Paul. 
"Let my funeral," said he, "be conducted with the least 
possible expense or display, as all the resources of the empire 
are now needed for the prosecution of the war." While con- 
versing, news came that dispatches had arrived from Sevas- 
topol. The emperor deeming that he had already abdicated, 
declined perusing them, saying, " I have nothing more to do 
with earth." Alexander sat for several hours at the bed side, 
receiving the last directions of his father. 

On the 2d of March the emperor remained upon his bed, 
unable to articulate a word, and with difficulty drawing each 
breath. At noon he revived a little and requested his son, in 
his name, to thank the garrison at Sevastopol for their hero- 
ism. He then sent a message to the Bang of Prussia, whose 
sister he had married. " Say to Frederic that I trust he will 
remain the same friend of Russia he has ever been, and that 
he will never forget the dying words of our father." 

The agony of death was now upon him, and he was speech- 
less. His confessor repeated the prayers for the dying. At 
twenty minutes past twelve he expired, holding, till the last 
moment, the hand of the empress and of his son Alexander. 

Alexander II., who now occupies the throne, was born the 
29th of April, 1818. He is a young man of noble character 
and very thoroughly educated. At the age of sixteen, ac- 
cording to the laws of the empire, he was declared to be of 
age and took the oath of allegiance to the throne. From that 
time he lived by his father's side in the cabinet and in the 
court. His fare was frugal, his bed hard, and his duties ardu- 
ous in the extreme. In April, 1841, he married the princess 
Maria, daughter of the Grand Duke of Darmstadt. She is 
reported to be a lady of many accomplishments and of the 
most sincere and unaffected piety. He is himself a man of 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER III. 535 

deep religious feeling, and many who know him, esteem him 
to be a sincere and spiritual Christian. What character the 
temptations of the throne may develop, time only can deter- 
mine. He is now struggling, against the opposition of the 
nobles, to emancipate the boors from the slavery of serfdom, 
being ambitious of elevating all his subjects to the highest 
manhood. The temporal welfare of perhaps ninety millions 
of men is placed in the hands of this one monarch. An in- 
discreet act may plunge all Russia into the horrors of a civil 
war, or kindle flames of strife through Europe which no power 
but that of God can quench. The eyes of Europe are fixed 
upon him, and the fi'ieuds of the Redeemer, the world over, 
watch his movements with solicitude and with prayer. 

In the year 1861, the Emperor Alexander won the applause 
of Christendom by announcing his intention of emancipat- 
ing all the serfs of his empire, who, through long generations, 
had been subjected to very oppressive bondage to the nobles. 
These serfs comprised more than one-half of the population 
of European Russia. They were the tillers of the soil, were 
sold with the soil, and were never permitted to wander 
fi'om their districts. In the humane endeavor to secure their 
emancipation, the emperor encountered immense difficulties 
from the opposition of the nobles, who were, in reality, the 
slave-owners, and whose revenues would be seriously cur- 
tailed by the emancipation. 

In the code which had been carefully drawn up by the di- 
rection of the emperor for the regulation of the future rela- 
tions of master and serf, the latter was required to work for his 
master on low wages for two years. During this time, ar- 
rangements were to be made for them to purchase land at a 
stipulated price, payment being made by installments. The 
freedom of the serfs was to date from February, 1863 ; but 
they were not to come into full possession of their lands until 
the expiration of seven or nine years. 

On the 3d of March, 1863, serfdom thus expired for ever 
throughout the Russian empire. The event was celebrated 



534 THE EMPIRE OF KUSSIA, 

with profound religious solemnity by the millions thus re- 
stored to the rights of manhood. The emancipated peasants, 
anxious for education, immediately established schools in all 
their villages. Before their freedom, there was scarcely a 
day-school among all the peasantry. Immediately following 
the abolition of serfdom, eight thousand of these schools 
sprang up. The lands all over the empire rose rapidly in 
value. The serfs manifested great eagerness to obtain home- 
steads ; the government loaned them money to make their 
purchases ; and a new era of intelligence and prosperity 
seemed to dawn upon this vast realm. About twenty-two 
millions of serfs thus became freemen. 

The present emperor seems to be exerting all the influence 
which absolute power can give him to promote the welfare 
of the motley and ignorant population of his extended 
realms. He is encouraging the peasantry to secure for them- 
selves homesteads ; is establishing schools for the masses, and 
hio'her seminaries of learning? for more advanced scholars. 
He is endeavoring to elevate the ignorant and poorly-paid 
clergy by making provision for their theological education. 
The masses of the people are now advancing in the elements 
of intelligence and power perhaps as fast as the population 
of any other kingdom on the continent. The campaign of 
the Crimea has given Russia a temporary check. It is tem- 
porary only, however. Nothing in the future seems more 
certain than that Russia is destined to take possession of 
Constantino^^le ; and, when the banners of this majestic em- 
pire shall be unfj^irled over the dome of St. Sophia, changes 
must inevitably ensue in the condition of the nations of Eu- 
rope which no mind but that of God can comprehend. 

The recent visit of Alexis, one of the younger sons of 
Alexander, to these shores, is not an event fraught with any 
political importance ; but still it has directed the attention of 
our whole community to that majestic empire which seems 
destined ere long to become the greatest power in Europe. 

The prospects and designs of Russia are now attracting 



ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER III. 535 

even the anxious attention of all the courts of Europe. The 
diplomacy of every cabinet is influenced by the considera- 
tion of the momentous charges which may soon be expected 
to take place in the East. Every European journal is occu- 
pied by that great question. Upon its solution probably de- 
pends the re-organization of Europe, — perhaps not till after 
many a battle-field shall have been strewn with the mutilated 
bodies of the slain. 



INDEX 



A. 

Adacuef, (Alexis) appointed minister of 

justice, 223. 
Adrianople, Treaty of, 513. 
Akumet, Defiant reply of, to Ivan, 178. 
Alaixs, character and life of the, 19. 
Alexander succeeds Yaroslaf over Novgo- 
rod, 127. 
ordered to attend Bati, 127. 
appointed King of Southern 

Russia, 128. 
his reply to the Pope, 128. 
conciliates Berki, 12S. 
Albxandeb (Ncvski> puts down a rebellion 
headea by his son, 129. 
death of, 129. 

Yaroslaf of Tiver succeeds, 130. 
Albxandkb (son of Michel) ascends the 
throne, 141. 
outlawed by Usbeck, 142. 
flight and death of, 142. 
Alexandeb I., grief of, on the assassination 
of Paul, 471. 
re-establishes friendly rela- 
tions with England, 473. 
regulations of, 474. 
message of, to Napoleon, 477. 
defeat of, at Austcrlitz, 479. 
his interview with the em- 
b.issador of Napoleon, 480. 
defeat at Eylau, 484. 
implores peace, 487. 
bis admiration for Napoleon, 

487. 
forced to turn against Napo- 
leon, 492. 
magnanimity towards Napo- 
leon, 493. 
death of, 497. 
Alexaitdeb II. succeeds Nicholas on the 
throne, 517. 
character of, 518. 
Alexis succeeds Eomanow, 291. 
marriage of, 292. 

his concessions to the mob, 294. . 
his conquests in Poland, 295. 
pood works of, 296. 
death of, 299. 
Alexis (son of Peter the Great) bad char- 
acter of, 343. 
marriage of, 344. 
letters from, to his father, 851. 
flight of, 252. 
disinherited by his father, 354. 

23* 



Alexis plots against the crown, S55. 
condemned to death, 358. 
death of, 359. 
America, discovery of, by the Normans, 23, 
Amiens, treaty of, 476. 
Anastasia, death of, 255. 
Andke (of Souzdal) usurps the Russian 
throne, 88. 
moderation of, 92. 
submission of, 95. 
homage of Russia to, 95. 
assassination of, 96. 
sword of, 96. 
abolishes appanages. 111. 
Andbe (of Gorodetz) dethrones his brother 
Dmitri, 133. 
succeeds Dmitri as sovereiscn, 134, 
death of, 135. 
Anne (of Constantinople) forced to marry 
Vladimir. 55. 
Christian influence of, over her hus- 
band, 57. 
death of, 58. 
Anne (of England) letter of, to Poter the 

Great. 342. 
Anne (Duchess of Courland) oflfered the 
throne, 366. 
energy of, 367. 
death of, 368. 
Anecdote of the preservation of the Greek 
libraries, 19. 
of the love of Isor, 82. 
of the Tartar's theolosy, 127. 
of Vassili and the Greek phy- 
sician, 201. 
of Peter the Great, 311. 
of Peter the Great, 320. 
of Peter III., 385. 
Appanages abolished by Andre. 111. 
Ascolod and Die, enterprise and conquests 
of; 29. 
conversion of, 29 
assassination of, 31. 
AsTRACnAN added to liussia, 244. 
Atiiens taken by the Goths, 19. 
Attila the king of the lluns, conquests of, 

21. 
Avars, conquests of the, 22. 
Abistocbacy, gradual rise of an, 25. 

B. 

Bajazet II., letter of Ivan to, 188. 
reply of, 138. 



538 



INT EX 



Baptism of the Knssian nation in a day, 56. 

in Litliuania, 155. 
Barbarians, punishment of the. 87. 
Batuori (Stephen) elected King of Poland, 

262. 
Bati given the command of the Tartar 
horde, 119. 
depopulates Eezdan, 119. 
captures Moscow, 120. 
takes and burns Vladimir, 122. 
disastrous course of, 123. 
plunders Kief, 124. 
possessions of, 125. 
orders Yaroslaf to appear before him, 

125. 
summons Alexander, 127. 
death of, 12S. 
Berki succeeds, 128. 
Bayadour, chief of the Mogols, 113. 
Beards ordered to be removed, 327. 
Belskt (Ivan) elected regent of Eussia, 
209. 
reforms of. 209. 
assassination of, 212. 
BiBLO (Ozero Sineous) establishes his court 

at, 27. 
Bielski (Bogdan) his attempt to grasp the 
throne,270. 
his exile, 271. 
"Black Death," ravages of the, 144. 
Bohemia, aid from, to Tsiaslaf, SO. 
Bokhara burned by the Tartars, 116. 
Boleslas, (Kin? of Poland) assists Sviato- 
polk to defeat Yaroslaf, 59. 
seizes the sister of Yaroslaf as 

his concubine, 59. 
attempt to poison. 59. 
forced to fly from Kief, 59. 
Boleslas II. (of Pol:ind> reception of Ysias- 
laf by, 63. 
robs Ysiaslaf and expels him, 

63. 
refunds the treasure, 65. 
Bosporus, the Greeks j)!ant their colonies 

along the shore of the, 17. 
Bulgaria conquered by Sviataslaf, 46. 

the c^ipital conveyed from Kief 

to, 4S. 
conciuered by Georges, 72. 
condition of, 100; expedition 
against, 101. 

C. 

Caucastts, the eagles of tho Eussians plant- 
ed on the, IS. 
Catharine I., first appearance of, 333. 

public marriage of, with Pe- 
ter, 345. 
• crowned empress, 861. 
assumes the government, 

364. 
death of. 365. 
Catharixt II., early life of, 380. 

autobiography of. 381. 
seizes the throne, 392. 
" manifesto of, on the death 
of Peter III., 403. 
her labors and reforms, 404. 
administration of. 405. 
urged by her ministers to 

marry, 407. 
numerous titles of^ 409. 



Catharine II., attempt to assassinate, 410. 
inoculation of, 413. 
entertainments of, 415. 
her schemes with Henry, 

Prince of Prussia, 417. 
conquers the Turks, 418. 
correspondence of, 422. 
peace with Turkey effected 

by, 425. 
personal appearance of, 426. 
conspiracy against, 427. 
interview of with Joseph 

II., 437. 
her education of her chil- 
dren, 439. 
erection of the statue to 

Peter the Great by, 439. 
seizes the Crimea. 441. 
secures peace with Turkey, 

444. 
toleration of, 445. 
her journey to the CrimeJ^ 

448. 
makes war on Poland, 4?!. 
death of. 452. 
character of, 458. 
Cn.4.NCELLER (Captain) voyage of, 245. 
Charles XII. (of Sweden) ascends tho 
throne, 828. 
conquers the Eussians, 329. 
drives Augustus from Po- 

Land, 335. 
wounded, 838. 
utter defeat of, 389. 
escape of, from Turkey, 

846. 
death of, 360, 
Chemtaka, see Dmitri. 
Cheeson, church built at, in commemora- 
tion of the baptism of Vladi- 
mir, 55. 
Children, the female allowed to be killed, 

24. 
China, irruption of the Tartars into, 115. 
Christians, persecution of the, by the Tar- 
tars, 136. 
Christianity, its entrance into Eussi.a, 29. 
diffusion of, into Souzdal, 83. 
attempts of Andre to extend, 
96. 
Chronology of Eussia: Eurick, Sineous and 
Truvor jointly rule over 
Eussia, 27. 
Eurick succeeds Sineous and 

Truvor, 28. 
Ascolod and Dir reiirn over a 

portion of Eussia. 29. 
Oleg succeeds Ascolod and 

Dir. 31. 
Igor succeeds Oleg, 38. 
dlga succeeds Oleg, 42. 
Svi.itoshif succeeds Olga, 45. 
Yaropolk succeeds 0!g;\, 50. 
Vladimir succeeds Yaropolk, 

52. 
Sviatopolk succeeds Vladimir, 

59. 
Yaroslaf succeeds Sviatopolk, 

60. 
Vseslaf succeeds Yaroslaf, 62. 
Ysiaslaf succeeds Vseslaf, 63. 
Vsevolod succeeds YsiaslaC 
66. 



INDEX 



530 



CffBOXOLOGT of Russia: Svlatopolk succeeds 
Vsevolod, 69. 

Monomaque succeeds Svlato- 
polk, 71. 

Mstislaf succeeds Mono- 
maque, 75. 

Vladiinlrovitch succeeds 

Mstislaf, 77. 

Vsevolod succeeds Vladimir- 
ovitcli, 77. 

Isor succeeds Vsevolod, 78. 

Ysiaslaf succeeds Igor, 77. 

Kostislaf succeeds Ysiaslaf, 81. 

Georges succeeds Kostislaf, SI. 

Davidovitch succeeds Geor- 
ges, 82. 

Eostislaf succeeds Davido- 
vitch, 83. 

Georgievitch succeeds Eostis- 
laf, 84. 

Mstislaf Ysiaslavitch succeeds 
Georgievitch, 86, 

Andre succeeds Mstislaf, 89. 

Michel succeeds Andre, 97. 

Vsevolod succeeds Michel,100. 

Georges succeeds Vsevolod, 
104. 

Octal succeeds Georges, 125. 

Bati succeeds Octal, 127. 

Dmitri of Moscow secures the 
throne, 146. 

Tamerlane succeeds Dmitri, 
155. 

Ivan III. throws off the Mo- 

gol power, 172. 
.Vassili succeeds Ivan III., 
19). 

Helene (as regent) succeeds 
Vassili, 205. ^ 

Schouisky (as regent) succeeds 
Helene, 208. 

Ivan Belsky (as regent) suc- 
ceeds Schouisky, 209. 

Ivan IV. seizes his throne, 
214. 

Feodor succeeds Ivan IV., 270. 

Boris succeeds Feodor, 275. 

Feodor II. succeeds Boris, 279. 

Dmitri succeeds Feodor II., 
2S0. 

Zuski succeeds Dmitri, 283, 

Michel Feodor Romanow 
elected king, 287, 

Alexis succeeds Romanow, 
291. 

Feodor succeeds Alexis, 299. 

Sophia (as regent) succeeds 
Feodor, .303. 

Peter I. succeeds Sophia, 310. 

Catharine succeeds Peter I., 
864. 

Peter II. succeeds Catharine, 
865. 

Anne succeeds Peter II., 367. 

Ivan V. succeeds Anne, 368. 

Elizabeth succeeds Ivan V., 
369. 

Peter III. succeeds Elizabeth, 
887. 

Catharine II. succeeds Peter 
III., 403. 

Paul I. succeeds Catharine II., 
454. 1 



Chronology of Russia: Alexander succeeds 
Paul I., 471. 
Nicholas succeeds Alexander 

I., 502. 
Alexander II. succee'Vi Nicho- 
las, 517. 
During the Tarta. reign, only 
d the Tartar conqueror is usu- 

ally given. 
Chuech built at Clierson, 55. 

built on the site of the idol of Pe- 
roune, 56. 
Civilization, the Russians indebted to the 

Greeks for their, 168. 
CoMMKBCK of Russia, 113. 

between England and Russia, 

247. 
increase of, 249. 
CoNSTANTiNE (prince of Yaroslavle) claims 
the throne, 104. 
turns Kostroma, 104. 
ascends the imperial throne, 

108. 
effeminacy of, 108. 
death of, lv.9. 
CoNSTANTiNK resigns his right to the throne, 

498. 
CoNSTANTiNOPLK, the city of, 168. 
" CouKT Favorite," ottice of the, 430. 
Crimea, taken possession of by Vladimir, 

54. 
Crusaders driven from the imperial city, 

108. 
Ctrille (bishop of Novgorod) effects a 
treaty between Novgorod and 
the Tartars, 131. 

D. 

Dacia, the countries forming the province 
of, 19. 
conquered and divided by Trajan, 

Daniel (of Gallicia) attempts of, to eman- 
cipate Russia, 126. 
crowned etnperor, 126. 
Daniel (prince of Moscow) declares inde- 
pendence, 134. 
Davidovitch (of Tchernigof) invited to 
seize the throne of Russia, 
82. 
driven from the throne by 

Rostislaf, 93, 
flight of, to Moscow, 83. 
Danielovitch (Jean) appointed Grand 
Prince by the Tartars, 
142. 
reign and death of, 148. 
Diana, temple of, burned at Ephesus, 19. 
Diderot, Visit of, to Catharine, and her 

correspondence with him, 423. 
DiNSDALE (Dr. Tlionias) introduces inocu- 
lation, 411. 
Discoveries during tlie reign of Ivan, 190. 
Dniefee, baptism of the nation in the, 66. 
plunder of the commerce on the, 
86. 
Dmitri ascends the throne, 1.33. 

drives Andre from Novgorod, 133. 
disasters and death of, 134. 
Dmitri (son of Michel) assassinates GeorgeSL 
140. 
execution of, 141. 



540 



INDEX 



Dmitbi (of Souzdal) accession of, to the 
throne, 146. 
deposed, 146. 
Dmitbi (of Moscow) crowned sovereign, 146. 
conquers the Tartars, 147. 
wounded, 152 ; death of, 156, 
DAfiTRi CuEMYAKA assunies the govern- 
ment, 166 ; death of, 16fi. 
Dmitbi (prince, son of Ivan IV.) assassina- 
tion of, 274. 
Griska claims to be, 278 ; see Gbiska. 
DiMiTRY declines the throne, 181. 
Dbbvliens, debasement of the tribe of, 25. 
revolt of the, agamst Igor, 83. 
their punishment and enthu- 
siasm of, for Olga, 42. 
Deoutsk burned by Yaropolok, 73. 

E. 

Easteen Qttestiok, the cause of the pres- 
ent war of the, 507. 
Ecclesiastical Coitncil called to rectify 
evils in the church, 132. 
Elizabeth (daughter of Peter the Great) 
conspiracy of, 368. 
seizes the throne, 369. 
victories of, over Frederic of 

Prussia, 375. 
death of, 877 ; character of, 378. 
Embassaboe of Andre insulted, 92. 

the first from Eussia, 248. 
Emigration of llussians to the mouth of 

the Volga, 97. 
Emperors, see RrssiA and Chronology. 
England, influence of, in Europe, 244. 

amicable arrangement of Eussia 

with, 249. 
friendship between Russia and, 248. 
Entertainment, description of a royal, 415. 
Etiquette, laws of, as to young ladies, 203. 
E 1 LAU, battle of, 483, 



Famine in Russia, 105. 
Feodob (son of Ivan IV.) ascends the 
throne, 270, 
his incapacity, 273; death of, 274. 
Feodob (son of Alexis) ascends throne, 299. 
makes peace with Poland, 800. 
marriage of, 801 ; death of, 302, 
Feudal System, implanting of the, 28. 

G. 

Genghis Khan, pretended divine authority 
of, 115. 
irruption into China, 115. 
burns Bokhara, 116. 
recalls his troops from Russia. 118. 
death of, 113, 

nominates Octai as his successor, 
118; See Temoutchin, 
Geobqb (son of Andre) sent embassador to 
Novgorod, 92. 
returns to Moscow, 94. 
Georges (son of Monomaque) expedition o^ 

to Bulgaria, 72. 
Gboeges (of Moscow) assists Sviatoslaf, 79. 
enters Kief in triumph, 80. 
drives Eostislaf f rom the throne, SI. 
death of, 81. 
Oboboes I. (brother of Vsevolod) ascends 
the Russian throne, 104. 
burns Rostof, 104. 



Georges I defeated by Mstislaf, 106. 

surrenders himself to Mstislaf 

and exiled 108. 
disappears from history, 108. 
Geoboes II. ascends throne of Russia, 109. 
attacks Ochel, 109. 
founds Nijni Novgorod, 110. 
death of, 122. 
Gbobges III (of Moscow) obtains assistance 
from the Tartars, 136. 
defeated by Michel, 137. 
secures the throne, 140. 
assassination of, 140. 
Geobgievttch (of Souzdal) Davidovitch 
seeks aid from, 83. 
his system of government, 84. 
Ghirei (Devlet) character o£ 251. 
Gleb (prince of Muisk) takes Sloutsk, 73 

capture and death of, 73. 
Gleb left in possession of Kief; flight of, 89. 
Gordon (General) entrusted with the royal 

troops, 317. 
GosTOMYSLE raises an embassy to visit the 

Normans, 27. 
GoTHS, devastation of the, 19. 
empire of the, 20. 

suicide of Hermanric, king of the, 20 
Greece, overrun by the Avars, 22. 

invaded by Monomaque, 72. 
Greek Church, declared to be the best, 53. 
Greeks, colonies of the, on the Bosporus, 17. 
coalesce with the Bulgarians and 
expel Sviatoslaf, 48. 
Gregory VII., see Pope. 
Geiska assumes to be prince Dmitri, and 
invades Russia, 278. 
crowned emperor, 2S0. 
perplexities of, 281. 
marriasre of, by proxy, 281. 
death of, 283. 

Polish .adventurer claims to be, 284. 
hung at Moscow, 280. 
GuDENOw (Boris) his supremacy over Feo- 
dor, 271. 
assassinates Dmitri, 274. 
his subterfuge to obtain the 

throne, 275. 
crowned emperor, 276. 
GusTAvus III., interview of Catharine with, 

443. 
Gyda, wife of Monomaque, 75. 

H. 

Helenk appointed regent of Ivan IV., 204. 
despotic atrocities ofj 204. 
death of, 207. 
IIellespont, origin of the name, 507. 
IIeney IV, (of Germany) solicited to aid 

Ysiaslaf, 63, 
IIeney (prince of Prussia) visits Catharine, 
414, 
schemes of, with Catharine, 417. 
Hereditary Descent the cause of war, 112. 
Hermanric, suicide of king, 20. 
Hermitage, description of the, 416. 
Hebodotus, his account of the interior o. 

Russia, 17. 
Holy Alliance, formation of the, 493, 
Hungary, aid from, sent to Ysiaslaf, SO. 
alliance of, with Russia, 183. 
revolt of, .against Austria, 518. 
Hun9, Russia devastated by the, 20. 

revolting appearance of the, 20. 



INDEX 



bil 



ncna, Attilo, king of the, 21. 

disappearance of tlie, 21. 



Idols, the Greek and Sclavonian, 26. 

destruction of the, in itiissia, 55. 
[qob, assumes the govcrniiicnt of liussla 
under the guardianship of Oleg, 30. 
fears to claim his crown, 82. 
his love and marriage, 33. 
assumes the government of Russia, 8S. 
attack on Constantinople, 39. 
his defeat by the Greeks, 39. 
second attack on Constantinople, 40. 
concludes treaty with the Greeks, 40. 
death of, 41. 
[qok II. receives throne of Russia, 78. 
made prisoner, 78. 
enters a convent, 78. 
assassination of, 79. 
[lmkn, army on the shores of the lake o^ 80. 
Impostor, see Gkiska. 
Inventions during tlie reign of Ivan III. 190. 
Ivan III. ascends the throne, 168. 
early marriage of, 168. 
captures Kezan, 170. 
artianced to Sophia of Greece, 174. 
marriage of, 175. 
his reforms, 176. 
letter of V;i.ssian to, 179. 
pro|)osals for the marriage of his 
' dauirhter, 185. 

letter of, to Sultan Bajazet II., 186. 
letter of the Sultan to, 188. 
death of the wife of, 1S9. 
marriage of the son of, 189. 
death of, 189. 

discoveries and inventions during 
the reign of, 190. 
ItaN IV. ack.iowledired as tzar, 204. 

asserts claim to the throne, 213. 
coronation of, 214. 
marriage of, 216. 
chanirtrin tlie character of, 221. 
his aildrcss to the people, 223. 
defeat of, l.y the Tartars, 2-26. 
capture of Kczan by, 235. 
enthusiastic reception of, 237. 
serious illness of, 240. 
rebuke of, to Sweden, 252. 
attaches Livonia, to Russia, 253. 
death of the wife of, 255. 
matrimonial projects with Po- 
land, 255. 
abdication of, 256. 
petitioned to resume the throne, 

257. 
good will of EnglancHo, 259. 
Sight of, 261. 

strives to be umpire in Poland,26.S. 
defiant demands of Poland on, 264. 
unpo[)ul:irity of, 266. 
death i)f hisson, depression at, 267. 
death of, 268. 
his sons, 270. 
I^ iN V. SJicceods to the throne. 368. 
deposed by Elizabeth, 36S. 
imprisonmentand su He rings of, 370. 
assassination of, 871. 
Ivan (brother of Peter I.) seclusion and 

deatli of, 310. 
TvANOViTcii (Jean, of Moscow) reign and 
death of, 146. 



Jacob (General) deserts the Russians and 
defends Azov, 315. 
captured and hung, 815. 
Jean, base flattery of, to Machmct, 163. 
Jean Damelovitcu, see Danielovitcii. 
Jkna, battle of, 482. 

Jews, attempt of Andre to convert the, 96. 
JosEi'U II. (of Germany) eccentricity of, 437 
visit to St. Petersburg, 438. 

K. 

Kavgadi, taken possession of by Michel, 137 
Kezan, captured by Ivan III., 170. 
siege of, 229. 
capture of, 235. 
insurrection in, 240. 
KnAN, see Genghis. 

KnozAus, the, conquered by Sviatoslaf, 46. 
Kief, beauty of the city of, 28. 

the Norman adventurers Ascolod and 

Dir remain there, 29. 
taken by Oleg, 31. 
the capital of Russia transferred from, 

to IJulgaria, 48. 
captured by Vladimir, 52. 
decoration of, by Yaroslaf, 61. 
punishment of, by Ysiaslaf, 63. 
destruction of the citizens of, 66. 
government offered to Monomaque,70. 
festival in lionor of the new reign, 71. 
the inhabitants of, invite Vladiiniro- 

vitch to ascend the throne of, "6. 
triumphal entrance of Georges into, 80, 
Roman appointed prince of, 9.::. 
plundereil by the T.artars, 124. 
Kolomna, emigration from Moscow to, 163. 
Kostuoma, burned by Constantino, 104. 
KoTiiiAN (prince of Polovtsi) retreats to 

Hungary, 123. 
KouLiKOF, battle of, 149. 
KouuiA (chief of the Petchcnegues) defeats 
Sviatoslaf and makes a drinking 
cup of his skull, 49. 



Ladislaits elected emperor, 286. 

liis election declared void, 287. 
Laiiakpe, efforts of, for the education of 

Alexaniler, 473. 
Leczinsky (Stanislaus) placed on the Polish 

throne, 3^35. 
Leon (of Constantino) imbecility of, .35. 
Libkaky, foundation of the royal, of St. 

Petersburg, 345. 
LiPPENOW (Zachary) puts the Polish garri- 
son to death, 287. 
London, Peter the (Jroat's visit to, 322. 
London Postman, extract from the, 822. 

M. 

Maoedon, see Piitlip op. 
Maciimet, flattery of Jean to, 162. 
Mahomet II., wars with Genghis Khan, 
116. 
death of, 116. 
Marcow (Russian omb.-ussador) ordered to 

leave Franco, 476. 
Maria (wife of Vsevolod III.) character of, 

1(12. 
Marriaoe, sinzular customs in, 289. 
Martyrs, Ivan and Theodore, the frst 
Christians, 58. 



542 



INDEX 



Menzikofp, sketch of the life of, 336. 

banished by Frederic II., 366. 
deiith of, 366. 
Michael III. (of Constantinople), 29. 
Michel (of Tchernigof, son of Mononiaque) 
oflFered the throne of Eussia, 97. 
his reign and death, 9S. 
Michel (of Tver) succeeds Andre on the 
throne of Russia, 136. 
presents himself before the Tartar 

horde, 138. 
execution of, 140. 
MissiosAsiES sent through Enssia to teach 

Christianity, 56. 
MoGOLS, character o*f the, 113. 

civilization of tlie, 143. 
Moldavia, the inhabitants of, 83. 
MoxAECHY, recapitulation of the Russian, 

110 ; see Chbonologt. 
MouoMAQirE offered the Russian crown, 70. 
he declines it, 71. 
goes to the rescue of Kief, 71. 
his expeditions to extend the 
. empire, 72. 
eons of, 72. 
conquers the invaders from 

the Caspian Sea, 72. 
expedition against Greece, 72. 
" golden bonnet" of, 73. 
death of, 73. 

parting letter of, to his chil- 
dren, 74. 
wife of, 75. 
MoBOSOiT, ambitious schemes of^ 291. 

marriage of. 292. 
Moscov, first historical mention of^ 79. 
supremacy of, S3, 
capture of, 89. 
burned, 98. 

cai>tured by Bati, 120. 
flight of Georges II. from, 121. 
becomes the capital, 142. 
burned by the Tartars, 154. 
appearance of, in 1520, 202. 
destroyed by fire, 21S. 
grand fete at, 239. 
destroyed by the Tartars, 261. 
burned by the Poles, 2S7. 
Mstxslat (son of Monomaque) his expedi- 
tions and victories, 72. 
Bueceeds his father, 75. 
death of, 76. 
MsTiSLAF YsLASLAViTCH, succeeds Eostislaf 
over Eussia, 86. 
proclamation of, 87. 
flight of, from Kief; 89. 
return to Kief. 89. 
death ot; 90. 
MsTiSLAT (son of Andre) araljition of, 90. 
simmoned Novgorod to surrer 

der, 9L 
defeat of, 91. 
MsTiSLAF (prince of Galitch) appears in pnb 
lie. 105. 
aids Constantine, 105. 
defeats Georges, 106. 
beaten by the Tartars, 117. 
McnacH (General) advice of, to Peter, 395. 
appearance o^ before Catharine,401. 

N. 
Napoleon, victories o^ 465. 

re^-uras Russian prisoners, <.^T. 



Napoleox, remarks ot, on PanI I., 472. 
reply of, to Alexander, 479. 
victorious at Austorlitz, 479. 
letter of, to king of Prussia, 435. 
exiled to Elba, 493. 
feigns the '• Uoly Alliance," 496. 
Nepeia, the first Russian embassador, 24Sfc 

his reception in London, 248. 
Nestok, record of, of the Christians in Con- 
stantinople 41. 
Nicholas, takes oath of allegiance to Con* 
stantine, 501. 
ascends the throne, 502. 
puts down the rebellion, 503. 
power of, 506. 

assists Turks against Egypt, 513. 
crushes Hungarian revolt, 513. 
defeated at Sevastopol, 574. 
death of, 517. 
NiJNi NovGOEOD, Georges II. founds the 

city of, 110. 
Noble, requisite for becoming a, 25. 
NoBMAXS, at first called Scandinavians, 23. 
early power and discoveries of, 28. 
superior civilization of the, 26. 
Notre Dame, burial of Ysiaslaf in. 66. 
NovGOEOD, Rurik establishe^s his court at, 27. 
annexed by Georgievitch, 84. 
successful defense of, 91. 
Rurik appointed prince of, 92. 
George sent to, to adjust the 
difficulties in, 92. 

O. 

OcTAi succeeds Genghis Khan, IIS. 

letter of, to the king of France, 127 
Oleg, the guardian of Igor, 30. 

assassinates Ascolod and Dir, 31. 

dominion of, 31. 

attempts a march upon Constanti- 
nople, 33. 

the expedition, 35. 

his treaty with the Greeks, 36. 

death of. 37. 

his popularity and labors forRussia,38, 

(son of Sviatoslaf) receives the gov- 
ernment of the Drevliens, 48. 

defeated by Tarpolk, 46. 

death of, 5(5. 

bones o^ disinterred and baptised, 61. 
Olga (wife of Igor) assumes the regency, 42. 

she punishes the Drevliens, 42. 

conversion of, to Christianity, 43. 

baptised by the name of Helen, 44. 

death of, 46. 
Oelof (count) haughty behavior of, 407. 
Ottoma-s Pokte, manifesto of the, 442. 



Pagakisu in Eussia demolished at ablow,56. 
Paul I. (son of Catharine) marriage of, 421. 

death of his wife, 432. 

visit of, to Frederick, 433. 

marriasre of, 436. 

travels' of, 438. 

ignorance of, 454. 

extravagance of, 455. 

reiistablishment of ancient eti- 
qnette, 4.o6. 

a horse court-martialed by, 457. 

reason for his capric«is, 45S. 

fury of, on learning his defeat, 465 

letter o^ to Napoleon, 467. 



INDEX 



543 



Paul I., surrounding influences of, 46S. 
conspiracy against, 469. 
assassination of, 470. 
Pekin burned by the Tartars, 115. 
l*BBEA8LA.VLE, the territory o^ given to 

Vsevolod, 61. 
PzREOESLAVETZ, reconquered, and made the 
capital by Sviatoslaf, 48. 
PERIASLA.VLE, battle of the city of, SO. 
Peboune, one of the gods of the Russians, 41. 

the idol of^ destroyed, 55. 
Petcueneguks, Igor purchases peace with 
■^ the, 39. 
Sviatoslaf defeated by the, 49. 
Pkteb I. (the Great) marriage of, 309. 

attempted assassination of, 309. 

his return to Moscow, 310. 

indications of greatness, 311. 

his passion for the ocean, 312. 

settles Chinese difficulties, 314. 

captures Azof, 315. 

resolves to travel incognito, 316. 

his attack on La Fort, 817. 

his residence at Zaardam, 318 

his recognition, 319. 

anecdotes of, 320. 

his thirst for knowledge, 321. 

visit to London, 322. 

return to Moscow, 325. 

his reforms in the church, 326. 

change of the calendar, 327. 

troubles of, with Sweden, 328. 

coolness on hearing of the defeat 

of his army, 329. 
founds St. Petersburg, 332. 
captures Marienberg, 333. 
meets Catharine and privately 

marries her, -333. 
defeats Charles XIL, 339. 
demands of, on Queen Anne, 341. 
reply of Anne to, 342. 
captures Livonia, 342. 
desperate condition of, 343. 
public marriage of, 345. 
journeys of, 346. 
residence in Paris. 349, 
letters of, to Alexis, 351. 
arraigns his son for high trea.son,356. 
ettects a peace witli Sweden, 860. 
causes coronation of Catharine, 361. 
death of, 362. 

inscription on the tomb of, 363. 
statue erected to, 440. 
Pkteb IL, resrency of. 365. 

death of, 366. 
Pbtbb III., succeeds Elizabeth, 877. 

early life of, and acquaintance 

•with Catharine, 3S0. 
determines to repudiate Cath- 
arine, 390. 
alarm of, on the escape of Cath- 
arine, 395. 
abject humiliation of, 393. 
abdication of, 399. 
assassination of. 402. 
PETERnOFK, the palace <»f, 504. 
Philip (of Macedon) conquers the Scythi- 
ans, 18. 
Plagce, devastations of the, 419. 
Poland, aid from, to Ysiaslnf, SO. 

Stephen Bathori elected king, 261. 
demands of, on Russia, 264. 
conquests of, 255. 



Poland, conquests of Alexis in, 295. 
deathof thekingof, 298. 
John Sobieski chosen king of, 298. 
Stanislaus Seczinsky placed on the 

throne of, 335. 
degeneration of, 414. 
sliced by Russia, Austria and Prus- 
sia, 420. 
rebellion in, 513. 
Poles, rise of tlie, 513. 
Polotsk, captured by Vlademer, 52. 
Polovtsi, the nation of, 123. 
Pope (Gregory VII.) promises to assist 
Ysiaslaf, 64. 
letter of, to Ysiaslaf, 64. 
letter of, to the king of Poland, 65. 
Pope (Innocent III.) his letter to the Rus- 
sian clergy, 102. 
POPPEL (Nicholas) visit of. to Russia, 184. 
solicits the daughter of Ivan for 
Albert of Baden, 184. 
PoBPnYEOGENETE, the emperor of Constan- 
tinople, 43. 
PcGATSHEF, conspiracy of, 427. 
execution of, 429. 
Ppltowa, battle of, 339. 
festival, 346. 

E. 

Religion of the Sclavonians. 26. 
Rkpublioanism, first indication of, 131. 
RoGNEDA, refusal of, to marry Vlademer, 51. 

forced to marry Vlademer, 52. 
Ro.MAN (prince of Smolensk) appointed 

prince of Novgorod, 92. 
EoMANOW (Michael Feodor) elected em- 
peror, 287. 
marriage of, 290. 
prosperous reign, and death, 291. 
Rome purchases peace of the Sarmatians, 18. 
Romish Church, its dominion over tho 

Greek church, 102. 
RosTiSLAFSucceedsto the throne of Russia,13. 
driven from the throne by Geor- 
ges, 82. 
expels Davidovitch from the 

throne, 83. 
death of, 86. 
RoSTOP burned by Georges, 104. 
RovGOLOU (governor of Polotsk) his daugh- 
ter demanded by Vlademer, 51. 
death of, 52. 
RcTRiK, Sineous, and Truvor, consent to 
govern Scandinavia, 27. 
unites the territories of his brothers 

to his own, 28. 
death of, 30. 

his crown descends to Tgor,his son.30. 
RuBiK (brother of Andro) appointed prince 

of Novgorod, 92. 
Russia, history of, 17. 

after disappearance of tho Huns, 21. 
earliest reliable information of, 2.3. 
sudden rise of, from the Sclavoni- 
ans, 26. 
derivation of tho name of, 27. 
confusion of, in consequence of the 

death of Sviatoslaf, 49. 
united under Yarpolk, 50. 
years of [leace under Vlademer, 57 
division of the empire of, 57. 
calamity to, by the death of Yaros- 
laf, 62. 



544 



INDEX 



EtrssiA, death penalty abolished in, 66. 

misery and suffering in, 66. 

Vsevolod succeeds "Ysiaslaf in the 
government of, 66. 

Sviatopolk assumes crown of, 59. 

abandoned to destruction, 69. 

Monomaquo offered crown of, 70. 

invaded by the Caspian hordes, 72. 

Mstislaf becomes emperor of, 75. 

famine and pestilence in, 76. 

throne of, seized by Viatcheslaf, 77. 

throne of, seized by Vsevolod, 77. 

throne of, demised to Igor, 78. 

varied fortunes of, 81. 

Kostislaf succeeds Ysiaslaa in the 
government of, 81. 

Georges secures the throne of, 82. 

Mistislaf Ysiaslavitch succeeds Eos- 
tislaf as emperor of, 86. 

union of the princes of, 87. 

old feuds in, revived, 88. 

fall of the capital of, 89. 

Andre succeeds Mistislaf Ysias- 
lavitch as emperor of, 89. 

Andre becomes monarch of, 95, 

Michel offered the throne of, 97. 

Michel's reign over, 98. 

accession ofVsevelod III., 98. 

Georges ascends the throne of, 104. 

famine in, 105. 

Constantino ascends throne of, 108. 

Georges II. ascends throne of, 109. 

recapitulation of the establishment 
of the monarchy of, 110. 

subdivision of. 111. 

Yaroslaf, prince of Kief, ascends the 
throne of, 123. 

in the power of Bati, 125. 

annihilated as a kingdom, 126. 

Dmitri ascends the throne of, 133. 

Andre ascends the throne of, 133. 

ceases to be a monarchy, 135. 

evils to, resulting from the death 
of Andre, 136. 

Michel succeeds Andre, 136. 

Georges of Moscow succeeds Michel, 
140. 

Alexander succeeds Georges, 141. 

Jean Danielovitch succeeds Alex- 
ander, 142. 

Simeon succeeds Danielovitch, 143. 

accession of Ivanovitch, 146. 

accession of Dmitri of Souzdal, 146. 

accession of Dmitri of Moscow, 146. 

agai n brough t under Tartar rule,l 55. 

Vassali ascends the throne of, 156. 

Vassali Vassalievitch ascends the 
throne of, 162. 

Ivan III. ascends the throne of, 168. 

rise of, in estimation of Europe, 172. 

invaded by the Mogols, 177. 

alliance of, with Hungary, 183. 

Vassili ascends the throne of, 191. 

splendor of the court of, 199. 

Alexander II. succeeds Nicholas, 
517. 

invaded by Sigismond, 205. 

Helene ;issiimes the regency of, 204. | 

Vassali Schouski succeeds Ilelene j 
in, 203. 

Ivan Schouski succeeds Vassali, 208. 

Ivan Belsky chosen regent of. 209. 

Ivan IV. ascends the throne of, 214. 



EussiA, news of tfc discovery of, arrives in 

England, 246. 
commerce with England, 247. 
the first embassador from, 248. 
Livonia attached to, 253. 
peril of, 265. 

Feodor ascends the throne of, 270. 
Boris Gudenow crowned, 276. 
Griska crowned king of, 280. 
Zaski elected emperor of, 283. 
Ladislaus elected king of, 275. 
Romanow elected emperor of, 287. 
Alexis succeeds Romanow, 291. 
Feodor succeeds Alexis, 299. 
Sophia, as regent for Ivan, succeeds 

Feodor, 303. 
Peter succeeds Sophia, 310. 
Catherine 1. succeeds Peter I., 364 
Peter II. succeeds Catherine I., 365 
Anne succeeds Peter II., 367. 
Ivan V. succeeds Anne, 368. 
Elizabeth succeeds Ivan V., 369. 
Peter III. succeeds Elizabeth, 377. 
Catherine II., accession of, 403. 
desolation of, by the Plague, 419. 
vast wealth of the court of, 420. 
judicial divisions of, 431. 
difficulties between Turkey and,438. 
Paul I. succeeds Catherine II., 454. 
Alexander succeeds Paul I., 471. 
absence of bookstores in, 475. 
treaty between France and, 476. 
Nicholas succeeds Alexander I., 502. 
extent of the territory of, 506. 
Russians, description of the early, 23. 

their mode of warfare, 23. 

retreat of the, before Akhmet,181. 
" EcrssiAN Justice," the code called, drawn 
by Yaroslaf; 62. 



Samabcaitde destroyed by the Tartars, 116. 
Sarmatia, Scythian name changed to, IS. 
Scandinavians, called also Normans, 23. 

See also NoRiMANS. 
SciiEVKAL conquered by the Tverians, 141. 
SciiLippENBUCii (Col.), heroism of, 331. 
ScuLiT sent to induce emigration of illus- 
trious men, 224. 
arrested by Charles V., 225. 
ScnouiSKT (Vassali) declares himself Tzar ; 

death of, 208. 
ScHOUiSKY (Ivan) succeeds his brother 
Vass.ali, 208. 
dismissal of, 209. 
assassinates Belsky and secures 
the regency, 212. 
SCLAVONIANS, conquests of the, 22. 

early religion of the, 26. 
send to the Normans tc de- 
mand a king, 26. 
Schools, introduction of, 57. 

character of the, 475. 
Scythians, irruption of the, into Russia, 17. 
character of the, 18. 
name changed to " Sarmatians," 18. 
Sevastopol, siege of, 514. 
Siberia, position and character of, 273. 
SiGis.MOND (of Poland) invades Russia, 205. 
Simeon (son of Danielovitch) ascends the 
throne, 143 
(son of Jean) acquires the title of 
the Superb, 144. 



INDEX. 



545 



SniEON, death of, 145. 

SiNSOUS, Kurik, and Travor, consent to 
govern Scandinavia, 27. 
death of, 2S. 
Blavb, the use of the word abolished, 327 
Slavery in Eussia, 202. 
Slave Trade, argument used for the, 100. 
Slootsk, burned by Gleb, 73. 
Smolensk, Truvor establishes his court 
near, 27. 
gains territoryof Viatcheslaf,61. 
flight of, Ysiaslaf to, 80. 
Sophia instigates a massacre, 304. 
appointed as regent, 306. 
quells an insurrection, 307. 
returns to Moscow, 308. 
sends first embassador to France, 

308. 
attempts to assassinate Peter, 309. 
termination of the regency of, 310. 
insurrection headed by, 325. 
SotrzDAL, increasing civilization of, 83. 

sympathy of the people of, for 

Sviatoslaf, 79. 
the country of, desolated, 80. 
Stakadottb, siege of, 206. 
St. Petersburg, founding of, 334. 

arrival of first ship at, 335. 
Swedes driven from, 336. 
the winter palace ofj 505. 
St. Sophla., burial of Vsevolod in the 

church of, 68. 
Succession, the Kussian right of, 112. 
Suw ARROW (Gen.), character and origin of, 
461. 
his hatred of the French, 462, 
vanquishes Moreau, 464. 
utter defeat of, 465. 
SviATOPOLK (the Miserable) seizes Eussia 
and kills his brothers, 58. 
defeated by Taroslaf, 59. 
drives Yaroslaf from Kief, 59. 
poisons the Polish army, 59. 
driven from Kief, 59. 
raises an army of Petchene- 

gues, 59. 
fligiit and death of^ 60. 
SviATOPOLK assumes tlie government of 
Eussia, 69. 
defeat and flight of, 69. 
character and death of, 70. 
Sviatoslaf, son of Igor, 42. 

his opposition to embracing 

Christianity, 44. 
assumes the crown, 45. 
his character and ambition, 45. 
conquers the Khozars, 46. 
annexes Bulgaria. 46. 
indulgencies of, 47. 
transfers his capital from Kief 

to Bulgaria, 48. 
the sons of, 4S. 
reconquers Peregcslavetz, 43. 
driven from Bulgaria, 43. 

Sersonal appearance of, 49. 
efeat of, by the Petchenegues, 
and death of, 49, 
Tchernisof given to, 61. 
death of, 65. 
Sviatoslaf, (grandson of Oleg) given the 
command of the troops of 
Andre, 93. 
defeated at Vouoychegorod, 94. 



Sviatoslaf (prince of Tchernigof ) m«urcli- 
es against Vsevelod, 99. 

establishes his court at Nov 
gorod, 99, 

treaty of, with Vsevelod, lOO. 

marriage of, 100, 
SviATOSLOF (brother of Igor) attempts to 

recover the throne for Igor, 78. 

conquered by Tsiaslof, 79. 
Sylvestre, bold address o^ to Ivan IV., 221 



Tameelaxe invades Eussia, 153. 

history of, 157. 
Tartars, reign of the, 113. 
plunder Kief, 124. 
embrace Mahommedauism, 131. 
defeat of the, by Dmitri, 151, 
panic and retreat of the, 161. 
Tchanibek assassinates his brother and as 

sumes the Tartar rule, 144, 
Tchernigof, the territory of, given to Svia- 
toslaf, 61. 
Tchoudes, the, conquered by Mstislaf, 76. 
Temouxchin, rise of, 114. 

assumes the name of Genghis 

Khan, 115. 
See Gengis Khan. 
Theology, the Tartars, 127. 
Tilsit, peace of, 487. 
Toleration in religion granted by Oleg, 33. 

of Vladimir, 56. 
Trajan, province of Dacia conquered by, 19. 
Treaty of Oleg with the Greeks, 36. 
Tribute exacted by the Tartars, 129. 
Truvor, Eurik, and Sineous, consent to 
govern Scandinavia, 27. 
death of, 28. 
Turkey overrun by the Eussians, 419. 
peace with, 425. 

treaty between, and Eussia, 513. 
Turkish Question, see Eastern Question. 
Tzars, see Chronology and Eussia. 

U. 

UsBECK (king of the Tartars) great hunting 
expedition of, 138. 
appoints Alexander, son of Michel, 

to the throne of Eussia, 141. 
death of; 144. 



Vassali, succeeds Taroslaf, 132. 
death of, 132. 
Dmitri succeeds, 133. 
ascends the throne, 155. 
death of, 161. 
Vabsauevitcu ascends the throne, 162. 
deposed by Youri, 168. 
returns to Mojcow, 164. 
capture of, 165. 
his eyes torn out, 16.'5. 
re-captures Moscow, 166. 
chauffe in character of; 166. 
death of, 167. 
Vassian (archbishop of Moscow) letter ol^ 
to Ivan III., 179. 
honor and death of, 183. 
(of Kolumna) advice ot, to Ivan 
IV., 242. 
Vassili (son of Ivan III.) marriage of, 189. 
ascends the throne, 191. 
treaty of, with the Tartars, 193. 



546 



INDEX 



VAsaiLi, embassage from, to the Turks, 198. 
embassage from the Turks to, 194. 
embassage from Germany to, 194. 
unites with Polaad against the 

Turks, 197. 
death of, 193. 
ViATOHESLAF, the territory of, given to 

Smolensk, 61. 
ViATOHESLAF seizes the throne of Kief, 77. 
surrender of, to Vsevolod, 77. 
VI.ADEMEK (illegitimate son of Sviatoslaf) re- 
ceives command of Novgorod, 43. 
flight of, 50. 
he demands the daughter of Rov- 

golod, 51. 
reply of Rogneda to, 51. 
the mother of, 51. 
captures Polotsk, kills Rovgolod 

and marries Rogneda, 52. 
captures Kief, 52. 
assassinates Yaropolk, 52. 
sacrifices children to idols, 53. 
conversion of, to Christianit}', 53. 
demands Anne of Constantinople 

as his bride, 54. 
marriage of, 55. 

his eflforts to expel paganism, 55. 
toleration of, 56. 
excessive benevolence of, 57. 
death of, 57. 

Sviatopolk succeeds him, 58. 
surrenders his crown to Sviato- 
polk, 69. 
Vladimk captured, 122. 
V1.ADIMIBOVITOH invited to take the throne 
of Russia, 76. 
death of, 77. 
VoLTAiBE, library of, purchased by Cath- 
arine, 446. 
VotrOYCHBGOKOD, heroic defense of the 

fortress of, 93. 
VsBSLAF proclaimed king, 62. 
VsBVOLOD, the territory of Pereaslable given 
to, 61. 
succeeds Tsiaslaf, 66. 
character of, 67. 
death of, 68. 
Vsevolod III., accession of, to the Russian 
throne, 93. 
seizes the embassadors of 

Sviatoslaf, 99. 
seizes Novgorod, 100. 
treaty with Sviatoslaf, 100. 
expedition against Bulgaria, 

101. 
death of; wife 0^ 102. 
Vsevolod (son of Monomaque) expedition 
of, to Finland, 72. 
establishes himself on the throne 

at Kief, 77. 
death of 78. 

W. 
Woman, indignities to which she was sub- 
jected, 24. 



Tabofolk (son of Sviatoslaf) receives the 
government of Kief, 48. 



Yabopolk conquers Oleg, 49. 

Russia united under him, 80. 
the betrothed of, 51. 
assassinated, 52. 
the bones of, disinterred acd 

baptized, 61. 
(son of Monomaque), expedition 

to the Don, 72. 
conquered by beauty, 72. 
marriage of, 72. 

captures Gleb, burns Droutsk,73. 
Yakoslaf, march of, against his brother 
Sviatopolk, 58. 
defeats Sviatopolk, 59. 
driven from Kief, 59. 
drives Sviatopolk from Kief, 59. 
conquers him on the banks of 

the Alta, 59. 
secures the government of 

Russia, 60. 
piosperity of Russia under the 

rule of, 60. 
attempts of, to educate the 

Rusjiians, 60. 
letter ot^ to his children, and 

bequests of, 61. 
death of, 61. 
works of, 61. 
Yaroslaf (prince of Kief) ascends the 
Russian throne, 123. 
energy and nobility of, 123. 
commanded to appear before 

Rati. 125. 
sent to Octal. 125. 
death of, 126.' 
Yaeoslaf (of Tiver) succeeds Alexander, 
130. 
accused by the people, 130. 
humiliation of, and exile, 181. 
sends embassadors to the Tar- 
tars ; death of, 131. 
Vassali succeeds, 132. 
YouEi captures Moscow and deposes Vassili, 
163. 
death of, 164 
YsiASLAF I. (son of Yaroslaf) nominated 
emperor of Russia by iua 
father. 61. 
troubles and flight of, 62. 
his reception in Poland, 63. 
his punishment of Kief, 63. 
flight of, to Germany, 68. 
implores aid of the Pope, 64. 
recovers his kingdom, 65. 
death of 65. 
YsLi^SLAF IL seizes the throne of Russia, 78 
conquers Sviatoslaf, 77. 
his address to the Novgorod- 

ians, 79. 
conquered by Georges, 80. 
flight ot, to Smolensk, 80. 
varied fortunes of, 61. 
death of, 82. 

Z. 

Zkbebbinow, routs the Turks at Azo^ 259 
ZcsKi heads an insurrecticn. 2S2. 

elected emperor by the people, 288 

death of, 286. 



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